Shaking
by Sin.Of.Dreams
Summary: In the midst of Bella Discovering her new abilities Rosalie does something the family does not expect. Everyone is thrown into chaos and sacrifices must be made. Edwards POV, post Breaking Dawn.
1. Chapter 1

**(Before we begin I would just like to give you a bit of background info. The stuff with the Volturi in Breaking Dawn didn't happen, because lets face it that was the gayest part. Bella can use her shield just as good as she did then though. So the Volturi don't know about Renesmee and the Cullen's are still worried about her growing so fast. But they decided not to worry about it anymore and just enjoy their time with her. Also they left Forks and are now in Jeanau, Alaska. Sorry it all starts out pretty fast but that's fine. By the way the story is being told from Edwards's point of view because he is the best character By the way i dont really care if you dont like this story, i worte it for myself because i like to write and I have alot of ideas in my head about this stroy. If you like this story GREAT. Go ahead and review if you want.**

This was so ridiculous.

It seemed so silly to me to be wasting time here. Lately I had been growing quite tired of this human farce. As I thought I had no idea why I was suddenly sick of pretending. Then I heard Bella quietly sigh. My eyes instantly flickered to her. Her face was blank and her eyes were out of focus. Then I had it. Before Bella I had no reason to do anything. I could waste my time here because I really had no other way to be spending it. Now that I had her and Ness school seemed like more of a chore and less of a distraction. That's how I used to think of it. A distraction from what we are, or something to pass the time at least. I smiled.

The bell rang just as I was reaching to touch her face. Though I was relieved to finally get out of this Spanish class, I was also annoyed that it had ruined my moment. Emmett, Bella and I stood sinuously. Emmet exaggerated his boredom by stretching and letting out a loud yawn/groan/growl. He chuckled after his charade was finished and I smiled, only slightly amused by it. I turned to take Bella's hand. That was when I noticed that she hadn't stayed to watch Emmett's joke. He must have noticed my irritation that she had already left.

"God Edward pick more polite wife next time." I just raised my eyebrows at him.

We walked the cafeteria. As soon as we entered we caught the golden eyes of our family. We weren't really that hard to miss. Alice smiled at me from across the cafeteria.

_Is she alright? _She thought also throwing in a picture of Bella's glassy stare, though I didn't really need the confirmation. I lifted my shoulders slightly, trying to make it look like a heavy sigh when it was really a shrug.

_She's been pretty down since the other day, huh? _She thought again, thinking about the events of 3 days ago.

. . .

We had had the day off due to good weather. We had been lying together on the couch watching a movie. Though watching isn't really what I would call it. I was looking at her and playing with her hair while she laid on my chest with her eyes closed and a slight smile on her lips.

"What are you thinking" I asked. I knew had asked her that a million times. But her thoughts were never boring to me. Everything she did was fascinating. She never seemed to mind my curiosity. She had only smiled wider.

"I'm concentrating" She had said. I was once again instantly fascinated and had to know what she meant.

"On what?" I asked intently.

"I am practicing" I felt my eyebrows unconsciously lower in confusion, but she continued. "I am seeing how far I can stretch my shield, I have half of Seattle so far. Would you like to see?"

I nodded and felt my eyebrows lift in excitement as I rested my chin on her head and closed my eyes. I felt her laugh once at my enthusiasm before she lifted her arm over her head and rest her hand against my cheek. I leaned into her palm and almost instantly it seemed my mind was filled with a million lights, some dull, some bright and glorious, but all were beautiful. I smiled as more lights filled my mind and hers.

Just then Jacob came crashing through the door. All the beautiful lights vanished and Bella sighed. I looked into Jacobs thoughts to see what he wanted but he was focusing really hard on Bella's face so he must have not wanted me to know. But from the focus of his attention I could tell that he needed to talk to Bella. So I heaved a sigh as he took her arm and pulled her off the couch.

"Need to talk" He'd said simply. I nodded vaguely.

Without waiting for her reply he pulled her out the door. He slammed the glass door shut behind them and it trembled with the force. I shook my head. Jacob and I hadn't really ever been the best of friends. I had thought we were on better terms. I found myself really wanting to know what made him act so rudely. But I decided to let it go, and soon found myself imagining those amazing lights again.

. . .

She had returned about four hours later, without Jacob, and ever since then she has seemed really distant. She had retaken her spot on my chest and had barely said two words to me. Now that I really thought about it I hadn't spoken to her at all today. Not a word. I desperately wanted to ask her what was the matter. What had Jacob said? Why was he so upset?

_Edward? _Alice again. I realized I hadn't responded. So I nodded minutely. That was when I realized that everyone's thoughts were about Bella. Rosalie cared a little but she was more curious than anything. She didn't like to be left out. The rest of us were all concerned. She looked at the table for a few minutes and the rest of us looked at her. I could tell that everyone wanted to say something, but no one could think of the words to say. Alice didn't like her silence so she decided instead of trying to get her to tell everyone what had her down she settled with just getting her to talk. Good luck with that.

"Bella?" She asked leaning forward on the table a bit. Bella's black eyes flickered up to her instantly. Mental reminder: We should hunt tonight.

"Yes?" She said. Her voice almost seemed surprised. I guess she hadn't been paying to much attention. That was probably why she hadn't said anything about us gawking at her.

"You wanna come see a movie with me tonight? I wanna take my Porsche for a spin, I'm afraid it might start to collect dust stuck in that garage."

"Sure." Bella breathed and went back to looking at the table.

Emmett caved.

"Okay I give. What happened the other day? Why are you so depressed and what did Jacob say?"

"Wow Emmett, way to be subtle about it." Rosalie said in a low voice almost as if she thought that Bella couldn't hear.

Emmett acted as if he hadn't heard and just looked at Bella with raging curiosity. I would have gotten mad but I really wanted to know too, so I settled for a dirty look. He returned it.

"Well…" Bella started, everyone unconsciously leaned closer into our little circle. She stopped. Almost as if she was building up anticipation and suspense. "I…can't tell you." She finished.

"Damn" Emmett said. "Sworn to secrecy are you"

"I'm afraid so." Bella said with a bit of a sarcastic smirk. I smiled. She was not totally back to herself but at least she was a few steps above being catatonic.

The rest of the day passed without incident. It was a long and slow afternoon. Partly because of the completely monotonous classes and partly because Bella and I shared no classes this afternoon.

Eventually my final bell rang. I half ran out of my class, eager to go home and put as many miles as I could between this school and myself. I was the first to the car followed by Emmett and Rosalie, then Alice. We all sat quietly. Everyone's thoughts were relieved. Glad to be out of school. We all sat quietly not saying much. Eventually Jasper and Bella walked out of the school building. Jasper kept shooting Bella wary glances.

_I hope she doesn't fall. _He thought to himself. Her stride faltered for a quick second. Jasper put his hands out as if he really thought she was going to fall. I jumped out of my car and started walking toward them. As I was walking I sifted through jaspers thoughts. Bella had been sitting beside him perfectly quiet when she had started to tremble. It wasn't just any shake it was almost like she was convulsing. My eyes bulged as I looked at Bella. Her eyes were on the ground. If I wouldn't have caught her I am almost certain she would have full on ran into me. She looked a little shocked when I grabbed her shoulders. Her eyes came off the ground and settled on my own. After we stopped Jasper kept walking toward the car.

"What's wrong?" I asked her, hoping desperately that the next words out of her mouth wouldn't be "nothing I'm fine."

"Nothing." She replied. I guess it was too much to hope for.

"I saw what the same thing that Jasper did, so don't tell me it's nothing." Her eyes strayed away from me and toward all the students who were leaving school for the day. Finally she looked back to our family in the car, Alice in particular. Alice nodded and climbed into the drivers' seat. Before they could pull out Bella took my hand and headed towards the trees. We ran silently for a few short minutes. My eyes never left her. I was still worried she was going to fall or something. I kept pace with her easily. We stopped pretty quickly after that. Bella took a seat on a nearby fallen tree; I sat with her and put my arm around her tight shoulders. I could tell she was stressed about something, that plus her glassy stare for the last couple of days combined with what Jasper saw almost had me in a frenzy of panic.

"I promised I wouldn't tell. But this is getting to be too much." Bella said. I stayed silent waiting for her to tell me. She took a deep breath and continued.

"Jacob was having trouble phasing. He went to Sam and the elders first and told them. They told him he should take it easy for a while and maybe it was his time to retire from this." Her eyes cut to me. "You know as well as well as I do that he would never do that. So he decided he needed some kind of medicine. But he didn't know where to get anything like that so came to me and asked if I could help him. So we talked for a while and went over everything before I gave him one of the ancient books I got from Aro." (he had sent us several things, along with those books, in hopes that we would still join him. Needless to say Bella, Alice and I had all politely declined, yet again.) "So he went through it and found that…thing. He came to me freaking out because he kept having these awful hallucinations. I took the medicine stuff from him and told him to go home and not to take it anymore. But…" She hesitated.

"But now you're seeing those things too." She looked at me with apologetic eyes. "Why would you take that stuff? What would you need more strength for?" I asked her.

"I didn't drink it." She said simply.

"Then what do you…?"

"That stuff, its very powerful. The things you see…it's unlike anything you have ever heard of. So I am trying to block him from it until he can come down. But it's…difficult. If I shield him, his mind becomes apart of me. I see and feel what he is seeing and feeling."

"I didn't know it was like that." I said softly. I was mortified. I thought about all the times she used her shield against an attack. She felt what we were supposed to. I felt my body go cold.

"It usually isn't. If I block you its nothing too serious I feel it, but its not painful. But this stuff is like black magic, it has the strongest effects I have ever seen. Every attack that he has, I have it too."

"Then stop blocking for him. He did it, he can deal with it." I said fiercely, we had never been friends and it was his fault she was feeling this way.

"I can't." She said, barely audible, even to my ears. I looked at her with what I'm sure told her what my opinion on that was.

"If I don't do it, he might have a heart attack or something." She paused. I got the feeling that there was more to this. "And he is so scared he keeps trying to kill himself." She said quietly. I pulled her closer. She rested her head on my chest.

"What do I do?" I asked desperately. I didn't like that she was feeling this way. She sighed.

"I don't know. I just hope it stops soon." She said. We sat there for a little while longer before going home.

The next few days were better. I could tell Bella felt better now that I knew. We had decided not to tell anyone else in our family. So we just let them think we had a lot on our minds, it wasn't entirely a lie. Bella didn't seem to have that glassy stare anymore. I would see it every once in a while, and when I did I would just hold her closer, tell her she was fine, tell her I was there, anything to help calm her down. I never asked her about what kind of things she was seeing. I was sure I didn't want to know.

It was the weekend. Emmett was dead bored. He kept complaining about how he missed playing baseball in the Ranier field, complaining about the sun, anything he could find to complain about he did. Bella had been in the kitchen talking to Carlise about something or other. Carlisle came into the room and asked Emmett if he would like to play chess or something. They did and I continued playing my piano quietly to myself.

Then someone sucked in a ragged breath. We all turned to realize that it was Bella.

I was the first to find words.

"Love?" I called .She didn't acknowledge me. Not the slightest movement, I wasn't even sure I could hear her breathing, nothing. I instantly panicked.

Whenever she had one of these attacks she would either stare at something or she would come to sit with me and look at my face to try to distract herself. She had never reacted this way. I raced to the kitchen; I could tell my family was watching me. I ran in and she was huddled on the ground, with her knees to her chest, rocking back and forth.

I dropped to my knees and wrapped my arms around her.

"I'm here. It's not real." I kept saying.

"Make…it…stop." She whispered, and then she looked at me with the most frightened eyes. The only time I had seen her look at me like that was when Renesmee was being born. It made me feel sick, helpless.

_Yaaay. I did it. So tell me what you think…Any questions ask me. STAT._

_:0 ______ :D :S : :P :O :I :T_


	2. Chapter 2

**I just wanted to add a few more things here. So, I decided vampires can cry. I thought that was really gay in the book. So they can but they just have really thick venom tears. Also they can bleed, but it's just really thick and it's blackish, because I thought that would be cool. :) Also please Review. I want to know what you think about my story. And I really hate the title for this story. I made it up in like two seconds so its not so great, lol. So if you could add what you think I should change the title to if and when you review that would be nice. Thanx.**

I was frozen in the terror of her eyes for a moment before I could even move. When I was released I quickly picked her up and carried her to the living room. I sat down on the couch with her trembling in my lap. Her breathing was ragged and her eyes were blank and staring. I pulled her against my chest and put my hand on her face. She only responded to me by clutching at my shirt.

"Bella, you're okay. It's not real." She shook her head.

"It is real. All of it. It happened. It will happen." She said. I didn't understand what was happening; I was so terrified _I_ was trembling. Almost as much as her.

_What's going on? Is she alright? What is she saying? They both look so scared. Why? Oh my god, look at her eyes._

I could hear my families thoughts crowded around me. They had no idea what was happening, or what to do about it. Half of them were about to come forward and try to help. I didn't think crowding her would be the best idea right now. I tore my eyes away from Bella for the shortest half a second and threw them a look that I hope said _stay away. _Obviously they caught the gist of what I was trying to convey. They still worried as she trembled and stuttered out half formed sentences that didn't make sense to anyone.

"Shh, Bella I'm here, okay? I'm right here. Shh, just try to calm down. Take a deep breath." I said as I started rocking her back and forth slowly and hopefully soothingly.

"I…I…" She whimpered.

"Shh, its okay. Just…just…" I wasn't sure what to do anymore, I could hear my own voice breaking and I knew I was close to tears. I had never seen her so scared, or felt so helpless. She had the same look she'd had when Renesmee was born. I'd handled it then, but that was different. I could do something. All I could do now was sit here babbling and rocking her back and forth like a child and right now I knew that neither was having much affect.

"Just look at me okay? Look at me." I used the hand I had on her cheek to gently push her face so she would look at me. She tore her eyes away from the empty corner she had been staring at and looked at me with tear filled eyes.

"Shh, it's alright, love." I said as I kissed her forehead. A thick tear fell from her eye and I quickly wiped it away with my thumb. She took one of her hands she had clutched to my shirt and rested her fingertips on my cheek. I didn't say anything more. I just looked at her and hoped she couldn't see the panic lingering in my eyes. Soon her gasping turned to panting, then the panting slowed down and she started to breathe normally. Quickly still, but better than before.

"I'm sorry." She whispered softly.

"Don't you dare do that." I said fiercely kissing her forehead again but longer this time. She was still shaking a little. I brushed her hair behind her ears and continued the rhythmic rocking. We stayed there for a long time. Just relaxing, calming down.

After about two hours of rocking I felt the need to say something. She never said anything else and the hand she had placed against my cheek had returned to clutch at my shirt. My family had asked me (mentally) a few times if she was okay before they left to give us some space. I lifted my head from where it had been resting on top of her head and opened my eyes.

"Are you alright now?" I asked timidly. I was afraid I might frighten or scare her again.

She didn't reply at first. I instantly panicked again; I didn't think I could handle it if she had another attack like that. Thankfully for me, she nodded. I was relieved but not totally at ease. She had not looked directly at me the whole time we had been sitting. Meaning, she did not want me to see the fear and panic in her eyes.  
She was getting better; she was no longer shaking as hard, her breathing was more even and she wasn't staring at empty spaces anymore. She would look at my shirt, sometimes at my face (never meeting my eyes.) In some respects, she was recovering. However, I could tell she was still terrified.  
She was not shaking as hard, but she was still trembling. Her breathing was more even, but it would hitch and break every now and then. Also, she was still crying. Not as hard now, but a tear would slide down her face at random intervals. I would wipe it away with my fingers or my lips. She was also still clutching at my shirt. Her grip hadn't let up even infinitesimally during the whole time we had been on the couch.  
I sighed, and decided that she was not going to be better anytime soon and that maybe another change in environment would help her, so I picked her up and headed towards the stairs at a slow human pace. I was on the last few steps when I noticed that my always-closed door was open a crack. I was about to turn and walk towards it when I realized that it was not empty. My whole family had gone in there to seek refuge and try to calm down. They had one of my classical records playing though I could tell it was not doing much good for anyone.  
_I had no idea that things like that were going on. I felt both of their pain. Bella seemed so scared I was surprised her head didn't split. _Jasper, thanks brother I really needed the mental image of Bella's head exploding right at this minute.  
_God, how did I not see anything like this happening? Poor Bella, Poor Edward. Grr, I still don't see how I could have missed this! It seemed kinda major. GRRRRRRRRRR _Alice, I could taste a bit of guilt in her thoughts. Though I was surprised as well. How could Alice have missed something like this? Maybe that was what made it so hard for me. The fact that I had zero warning to cushion the blow.  
_That was so weird...God this kinda sucks. Everyone's faces are making me really depressed. I'm surprised Jasper hasn't taken a razor blade to his non-existent veins with all this sadness in this house. _Emmet....*Sigh*  
_Maybe it was some kind of sickness? But how could Bella, a vampire, catch a disease. Then again, Bella has been an exception to vampire anatomy before. _Carlisle, trying to find reason like always.  
The rest of the families' thoughts were silent. Everyone had one single image that seemed to burn into their brains. Me holding Bella, panic and anguish in my eyes, while Bella looked off somewhere random, thick tears streaming down her face. Apparently I had not hid my terror as well as I had thought.  
I decided to leave them all be, I turned and headed towards one of the guest bedrooms so I could lie down and hold Bella and try to calm her down some more.  
_I will go see if I can help Edward out..._Esme's motherly need won out after more than two hours. She got off the side table she had been leaning on and strode towards the door. To my surprise nobody followed her.  
She pushed to door open just before I was about to turn a corner.  
"Edward." She called softly. She was trying not to startle Bella. Somewhere in the back of my mind that single gesture reminded me of something. Bella being weak, vulnerable, scared, defenseless. It was like she was human and everyone was afraid to hurt her. I would have smiled at the thought if not for our present situation.  
I stopped at the end of the hall, without turning. I had a vague sense of what I looked like right now and I definitely did not want to make this situation any worse if at all possible. She came forward slowly, carefully. Once she was close enough she put her hand on my shoulder. Her other hand came to rest in Bella's hair. My eyes stayed on Bella's face.  
Esme saw the anguish on my face and the utter terror on Bella's and it was too much for her. Seeing her children upset and hurting caused her a deep, almost physical, pain. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Esme's face crumple before whispering an almost inaudible "I'm sorry Bella." With a quick kiss on the forehead for both Bella and I she pivoted on her right foot and returned to my families' refuge for the moment.  
I did not feel hurt that she had left, that she couldn't handle our pain. To be perfectly honest I had no idea how I was still standing. I was about to continue when I heard a slow deep intake of breath. I stopped mid-step and my eyes flickered back to Bella once again. She was perfectly still. I was starting to wonder if maybe it was someone from the other room who had sighed when Bella loosened her grip and whispered in a shaky voice "Put me down." I hesitated for a moment before gently placing her on her feet. She stood okay but she stayed very close to me.  
I quickly wrapped my arms around her tiny frame.  
"I'm so sorry." She said quickly I was about to tell her no, not to apologize, that it want her fault and that I was fine but before I could even form a sentence in my head she spoke.  
"Yes I am going to apologize, I know it wasn't my fault but I terrified you and no you are not fine."  
I was shocked. Had she just read my mind? How?  
"I did just read your mind. And I think I know why these things have been happening. Though it is only a theory and I could very well be wrong."  
"Tell me." I breathed into her ear.

**Hehe. Well that was nice...kind of? I don't know. Right now I am so tired I can barely form a coherent sentence. I woke up at 12pm on Monday stayed up all day and pretty much all night. Went to sleep at 5am last night woke up at 6am then went to school. Did homework and wrote this Chapter and right now it is about 830pm. So yeah I don't think exhausted covers it right now. I will try to finish the next chapter soon. Review please. I love to read them all ******  
**HUGZ4ALL HUZZAH!!!!**  
**Casey**


	3. Chapter 3

**Okay. First off thanks to Gaby47 and Music of the Wind for reviewing. Whenever I read reviews I just get more motivated to get my lazy ass up and write. So review more! And updates will be a lot faster. Lol. Also I am still looking for a new title for my story. If you have any ideas please tell me in your reviews. Thanks enjoy this chapter.**

"Not here." She said. When we spoke we did so very quietly so that my family, who were still just a few short steps away, wouldn't hear us.  
"Where?" I breathed. She did not speak again. In answer she unwrapped my arms from her waist, keeping one of my hands clutched in hers.  
We ran for what seemed like forever. Bella never uttered so much as a syllable. I was still a little worried about her. Okay, forget that, I was a wreck. Minutes ago she had been clutched to my chest whimpering and crying. I was not precisely sure if she was in any condition to be running all over the state.

My blind panic intensified ten-fold when I heard Bella gasp and jerk to a stop. I threw my body around, possibly giving myself vampire whip-lash if that's at all possible, I wrapped Bella up in my arms and whispered some rushed words to her. I was not exactly sure who I was attempting to console, her or myself. However, what she did next surprised me. She wrapped her arms around me in return. When she had these 'attacks', as I so fondly like to call them, she would completely shut down. She was not doing that now. Why?

"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to startle you…again." Bella replied, her voice perfectly normal except for the fact that I could hear a bit of pain and remorse twisted into its beautiful melodic chords.

"I just got lost in my thoughts and didn't realize how far we had come." She explained. I felt the muscles in my body loosen, though I still held onto her. She continued to speak. "It will be easier now. Now that I understand what is happening, err…or at least I think I do, things will be better." I nodded in understanding.

"It's alright, my love. I'm just a bit tensed up as of late. Don't feel sorry this is most definitely _not _your fault. You didn't control it or cause it to happen. It just happened. Come on." I said. I let my arms fall from her waist but stayed very close to her and walked over to a convenient boulder.

I took my seat and pulled Bella dawn next to me. She did not speak like we had come here to do. My best educated guess that I could come up with was that she was not precisely sure of what to say, or how to start.

We sat there like that for a few moments. Just collecting our thoughts, preparing for the storm.

Bella broke our silence by taking a deep breath.

"Okay, as much as I would like to avoid this, I know it has to happen sometime." She said, to me her voice sounded like an apology. I could feel my distaste for her pain color my expression.

"Bella, please don't do that. This is not your fault." I said, desperately trying to convince her that this was _not _her fault. Whatever happened obviously happened for a reason, even though I haven't the slightest clue as to what that reason is, I know that she couldn't have avoided it and I tried to convey that to her with my thoughts.

"I think…I think it's my power." She murmured.

I was utterly confused. Her power? _What do you mean?_ I internally spoke.

"I mean…well…I can hear your thoughts, the things I saw, and I feel your emotions right now. You're confused. I think the thing I was seeing was…what was going to happen, the future."

"So you think…your absorbing others powers? Wait, then why was Jacob seeing things too? You said he was did you not?"

"I think…the gifts that I have…that I've taken…I think I'm amplifying them. Alice's visions, they're stronger more specific, my theory of what happened there is I think I took Ness' gift. However, if it was amplified I wouldn't need physical contact to do it. But, I might be wrong."

"I don't think you are…" I said. Everything she said, it made perfect sense, every little piece fell into place. It was like turning on a bright light in the darkest of rooms. No wall or crack was left un-lit. I had one way I could think to prove it, even though I was certain of it myself.

"There's no way to prove it. I could just be jumping to conclusions. There could just be something wrong with me."

"We can prove it. We can find another vampire with a power and see if you get that power. Like the Denali's perhaps?" I told her. She lifted her beautiful eyes off the ground. She looked confused and maybe…appalled?

"This doesn't scare you? I'm a…freak. I'm taking others talents and using them for myself? That doesn't…bother you?"

I was shocked. She thought I would be what? Disgusted? I was the complete opposite, I was ecstatic. She was the strongest, most beautiful vampire I had ever known, she could protect herself, and more important than any of that, she was _mine._

"Scare me? Bella this is amazing, you're amazing. You're perfect. This is not a curse it's a gift. It just proves to me even more, if it's even possible that I can be convinced more, that you are the most perfect person to ever to have lived." She started to shake her head. "Hey," I said. She looked at me. "It's true, there's nothing wrong with you. I don't think I could find anything wrong with you if I sat for hours looking for it. And as for the 'freak' part, you have to know that even if you were a freak, you would still be _my freak."_

She let out a small laugh at that, which in turn caused me to smile. "Okay?" I asked. She looked at me, nodded and leaned into me. We sat there for a few more moments and I could feel her relax. I was glad she didn't have any self loathing thoughts and that she saw my side of this. She was perfect, and she should know that. If she didn't, I would remind her every chance I got.

"So you said we were going to go to the Denali's?" She asked after some time.

"Only if you're still unsure, we don't have to if you don't want to." I said. In all honesty I wasn't really sure if I wanted to go. But that was for one silly reason. I couldn't get the image of Bella shocking the hell out of me any chance I did something wrong.

As soon as I had that thought. I heard Bella gasp. She sat up and smacked the back of my head.

"I would never do that to you. However, it would be a good thing to use on Emmet. Ha, it could be like a…" I knew where she was headed with this so I cut in.

"Shock collar." I added. Bella looked at me and nodded a sly smile gracing her lips.

I couldn't stand it anymore. I needed those lips, those perfect, supple lips. I needed them against mine to let go of anything I still felt was weighing us down. Bella, hearing the passion and need in my thoughts, responded almost immediately, our lips crashed together. Though, I found once I felt her lips that I needed to feel more of her. So I tried to turn her over so that I was positioned over top of her. Though in my haste I had forgotten that we were currently seated on a makeshift boulder chair, so when I tried to roll her we both landed on the ground with a soft thud.

Bella laughed, the beautiful, bell-like guffaw echoing of the ancient trees, and I felt a smile touch my lips just before they touched Bella's again.

"The Denali's?" Bella asked. Not able to make out anymore than two, husky, passion altered words.

"Later." I growled. I hadn't meant for it to sound so harsh, but any separation from our current activities would surely kill me at this point. Bella just laughed and spoke once more before she removed my clothes.

"Whatever you wish my love." She said smiling. I leaned back a few centimeters, pure passion and need covering my expression, I couldn't find words anymore. Looking at her right now, lying beneath me, hair sprawled out around her, a slight smile on her lips and love reflected in her eyes, she was exquisite. So I just offered a goofy smile before we both reacquainted ourselves with the others scent, touch and taste.

Leaning against a tree with Bella against my chest, I held a new gratitude for the day. Having Bella, seeing Bella, just made everything more wonderful. Every beautiful flower now looked extraordinary, every sound sounded like singing, especially her voice.

"We should go if we are going to go." It took me a moment to remember what she was talking about; she chuckled lightly before I caught my bearings and remembered what she was referring to.

"Yes I suppose we should." I said softly, I had an odd feeling that if I spoke too loudly that this would turn out to be an illusion. The morning sun would disappear, the leaves and grass that were sparkling with dew in the morning light would vanish, and Bella, my beautiful, beyond words amazing Bella would leave and dissolve from my sight.

I was pulled out of my reverie by a slight pinch on my arm; I looked down to see Bella pinching the diamond skin there. She looked up at me after she was finished.

I raised my eyebrows at her.

"You're not dreaming I guess none of this will disappear. It's too perfect to be spoiled." She soothed. I smiled and we got off the ground, dressed and stood together for a moment before linking hands and running off in the direction of the Denali house.

**Okay so there is chapter 3. I wrote most of this chapter at school while I was supposed to be using the period for studying and doing a Social project which I was supposed to finish. :P So remember to review and Chapter 4 will be up **_**a lot**_** faster. Whenever I read reviews I first, start clapping randomly even though there is no one with me, then I text all my friend and tell them, then I start the next chapter as fast as I can so I can get more and clap so more. SO PLEASE REVIEW, because it makes me crazily ecstatically happy. Oh, and it makes me clap randomly. SO YAAA.**

**Xoxox**

**Casey.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello again, sorry it's been a while since I've written. I had some boyfriend troubles but it's all cleared up now! :) Thanks to the people who reviewed! I love to read them. Please review about anything. If something doesn't make sense, if you want to ask questions about the story or about things on my profile, if you have suggestions, if I made a spelling mistake, anything, please tell me in your review! Also I started putting up pictures of different things from the first few chapters. There are pictures of clothing, cars and other things too. Wow really long authors note, sorry 'bout that! Now to the good stuff. **

The morning was perfectly calm as we flew through the trees. You could hear the soft breathing of all kinds of critters who had yet to awake. My hand was still interlaced with my beautiful wife, Isabella. God, it never ceased to put a smile on my face thinking about how deeply our souls were sewn together. She was mine just as I belonged to her. I beamed proudly to nobody in particular.

I turned my head to look at _my _beautiful Bella, only to see that she had a smile that was akin to mine.

"I love you." I said, still smiling like a fool, but unable to stop myself.

"You too," She breathed, suddenly her eyes darted towards my chest. "Even though you have dirt all over you." She added with a smile.

My eyes followed hers, and sure enough there were a few splotches of mud and dirt stuck to my shirt. She let out a beautiful sounding chuckle, and I couldn't help but join in. If anyone else had seen that I would have been totally embarrassed, but I didn't mine Bella's teasing.

"Yeah well," I stopped not quite able to think up something clever to add. I hesitated too long and let my opportunity to tease her slide through my fingers.

"A compelling argument Mr. Cullen." She feigned seriousness, for a moment before smiling again. I looked away while nodding and rolling my eyes before looking back at her and starting to laugh. She joined in with me.

I sighed. "You weren't supposed to notice that." I said, enjoying our little teasing moment.

"It's hard not to notice when all I hear from that pretty little head of yours is 'Uh'." She laughed. I laughed to, she had me there.

We were silent for a few more moments. Sometimes we would joke with each other, sometimes we would talk. Once I asked her if she still thought I should be afraid or upset with her over her new found powers, she said I had changed her mind, and for that I was glad.

We were about 16 miles away from the Denali's house, and we hadn't spoken for quiet some time. I was just starting to notice how far we had really come. If we had started from our hose we would only have had to run 20 miles give or take. This run was taking over an hour and a half. I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed how far we had run! We had run to the coast of British Columbia!

"We were both pretty distracted, but yes it is a long way." Bella said, reflecting on my thoughts.

"It's just a little strange I didn't notice at all how far wee had come."

"Like I said we had a lot on our minds, that why it startled me when I finally realized where we were." She said smiling a little, but not like she had this morning during our little teasing session.

"What's the matter, love?" I asked. Was she still worrying about her new powers?

"It's not that. It's just..."She started but then stopped.

"It's just....what?" I prompted.

"When everyone finds out about...well this," She started, looking at me. I nodded in encouragement.

"Well everyone is going to be really curious and I don't know 'amazed' and stuff and then I will be...The center of attention." She said nervously her eyes darting in every direction, never looking at me.

I couldn't help it anymore. I burst out laughing. I couldn't even run straight anymore so I had to stop. She pulled her hand from mine with an angry expression on her face. I put both of my hands on my knees and continued to laugh hysterically.

"Geez, it wasn't that funny." Bella said angrily, she was standing a few feet away from me with her arms crossed over her chest and an angry expression on her face. Suddenly all I could focus on were those cute, pouty lips. Her angry face just seemed even cuter to me, and that made me laugh more.

Bella sighed and rolled her eyes then moved to run away. I wasn't having that so I went after her, still chuckling a little bit.

"Bella wait," I said still laughing. My hand connected with her wrist and she gasped with the contact. It was a wild, frightened gasp, and I was instantly scared again. My smile had completely disappeared.

"Bella! What's wrong, what's going on?" I said panicking. She was trying to get away from me. I wasn't having that so I held on tighter. That just seemed to make it worse.

"Let go of me!" She suddenly growled. She stunned me with her outburst s my grip loosened. In less time then it took to blink she was 20 feet away, her back against an old oak tree, panting.

My eyes connected with hers for a moment. I longed to go back over to her and hold her in my arms.

"No, don't. Just...just give me a m-minute." She said choking and stuttering on her words a bit. I felt my head sink a bit, and my eyes fell to the ground. I was ashamed, and I felt guilty.  
After four agonizing minutes she finally let out a deep breath she had been holding ad moved to come forward. I came up from my kneeling position on the ground. While I stood I was about to come forward and ask what had happened. However, it was then that I remembered her earlier request to give her a moment to recover so I stopped dead in my tracks**.**

She let out another sigh and came forward. She didn't hesitate and she threw her arms around my neck. I wrapped my arms around her in turn, and started to rock our bodies back and forth.

I didn't want to speak and un-intentionally make this worse, so instead I just kept apologizing to her in my head.

"Don't it's not your fault." She whispered into my ear.

"Yes it was." I insisted, but that was when I realized I didn't know what _it _was. Apparently she realized that too.

"I guess we don't have to go to the Denali's anymore." She said instantly confusing me again.  
Before I could ask her what she meant she was answering.

"What happened just now, I saw you're past. It just startled me that's all. You didn't do anything wrong." She clarified.

"Saw my past? Like Aro?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Huh. So I guess that means that whoever you've met who had a power you now took that power again so now you have that power?" I asked. Bella chuckled at my convoluted sentence. I, apparently, had unknowingly lightened the mood.

"Yes. I think that's what happened."

She had me amazed again. _Beautiful, powerful and __mine? __You have got to be kidding me._ I thought towards her.

She laughed a little at that.

"So what do you want to do now, love?" I asked. I would do anything as long as I had her.

"Well, I would like to go home and spend some much needed time with our child. I've been kind of a drag lately and I feel bad." She said looking worried and guilty.

"She loves you, always." I said. I knew it was true; Renesmee had loved her even before she had fully _met_ her. "As do I" I added.

She smiled and nodded. "You're sure you don't want to go visit the Denali's?" I asked. I also wanted to go home, but I wanted to make sure that she was getting what she wanted.

She rolled her eyes obviously reading my last thought and turned to walk away. "No they won't be there anyway." She said.

Then I had a thought. If she was seeing those things, then maybe those things weren't visions, but illusions, like Zafrina, the Amazonian vampire.

Bella stopped. "That makes sense. Perfect sense actually. I guess I just didn't know how to control it and I let it get out of hand."

"We'll have to work on it, so it doesn't happen again, then." I said. I was certain that she was never going to be hurt from those illusions, like she was before.

"Will you help me?" She asked. I walked forward and wrapped my arms around her.

"Of course." I said. "Let's go home."

She nodded and we both turned to fly through the lush Alaskan forests back towards our home.

**Mmkay, this chapter might have seemed a little rushed, but I kinda had to get it out. Just so you all know this is not the main conflict of the story, there is a lot more to come. By the way, I'm feeling really nice, so the bestest and nicest review gets a big treat. A preview of the next bunch of chapters!!!! So be nice and review. And for those people who took the time to read this story here is a tiny preview. It involves the Volturi. Yup. Very exiting. SO REVIEW!!!!**

**Xoxo**

**Casey. **


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello again. I have tests pretty much the whole month of June but its winding down now. Please review, Also I'm torn between two ideas in this story. So I don't want to give too much away....but....Nicest review gets to know what is tearing my head in two at the moment! But I'm kinda leaning more towards one. Please review anyway though, LOVE reading them. :)**

The next few weeks passed without too much incidence.

Bella had a little trouble adjusting to her new powers.

Scratch that, the first few days were hell. She was stressing herself out because she couldn't keep track of all of them, then she would accidentally project that stress on the rest of us and...well lets just say that I learned something new about my family, we _don't _do well with stress.

However, being the stubborn person that she is, Bella has been practicing every waking hour for the last three weeks, and she pretty much has everything mastered.

How she balances that, a daughter, our marriage, our family and schooling all at the same time still mystifies me. When I asked her how she handles it, she simply looked at me smiled a sweet smile and said, "As long as I have you it's easier than riding a bike."

Watching her practice her many talents was fast becoming one of my families' favorite pastimes. But Bella being Bella, she did not want us watching, embarrassed of all the attention. So usually we would all hide and watch, but she always knew we were there, she would catch us, chase us through the trees and tackle each one of us. We haven't gotten away with it yet...._yet. _

Pale lavender eyelids flicker, black eyelashes brush across a pale porcelain face. My daughter awakens.

She blinks a few times, her eyes adjusting to the light, and then he looks at me with her chocolate eyes, her mothers' eyes. She smiles at me before yawning, her mouth stretching into a little 'o'.

(A/N I love how the little quotation marks there make it actually look like a yawning face. HAHAHAHAHa Am I the only one who finds that funny? Oh. Never mind then.)

"Hi daddy." She says in her light, young voice. I smile brightly back at her.

"Hello, darling." She holds her arms out and asks me to pick her up in her mind. I do as she asks, smiling the whole time. She is almost 8 months old, yet she is the size of an average 3 year old. I see her smile fade slightly after she looks around the room. I look into her thoughts instantly to find the reason. Ah, She's wondering where her mother is.

I laugh. Renesmee has been attached to her mother by the hip even since before she was born. Their closeness is getting worse with Renesmee's age. Just as she is about to ask I answer her troubled thoughts.

"She is just getting dressed, give her a moment." I say, my voice sounding a little like chiding. The adorable little pout on her face deepens as I turn to walk towards her dresser to find her some comfortable clothes for the day. She will be staying home with Esme while the rest of us go to school, or work, or wherever else we are supposed to be. After finding an outfit I pick her up once again, with her sitting on my hip and turn to walk out of her room and into the living room to wait for my wife.

Emmett, Rosalie and Jasper were all already there. Upon hearing me enter Jasper and Rosalie looked up. Emmett, however, did not take his attention away from the TV in the slightest.

I was about to walk to the kitchen to get Renesmee some breakfast (A/N Lets say she can eat human food) when a screeching noise in my head made me stop.

_I WANT TO DO IT!!!!_

It was Rosalie. I didn't much feel like arguing so instead went over to the couch and sat down, adjusting Renesmee so she was sitting on my lap, with my hands on her tiny ribcage, steadying her. Rosalie got up and slipped out of the room and into the adjoining kitchen.

"Morning Edward." Jasper said conversationally.

"Good morning." I replied.

"How was your night?" he asked. I smirked remembering my night...

"Extraordinary." I said.

Jasper laughed sensing the lust coming off of me, I joined in. Renesmee gasped and started struggling to get off my lap. I released her and she starting running behind me to the stairs.

"Mama!" I heard her yell. I turned my head to see my wife descending the stairs. I laughed. She hadn't even come halfway down them before Renesmee noticed her.

"Someone's exited this morning." Bella said playfully while kissing Ness' cheek. She was now wearing a sky blue sweater that was buttoned up with a white shirt underneath and dark wash jeans. She looked beautiful as always, but I preferred last nights attire...

At that thought Bella looked at me and smirked a knowing smirk. I smiled and she came to sit with me on the couch. I put my arm around her shoulders and pulled her against me. We were probably in for a bit of a wait, Alice takes forever to get ready for school, as does Rosalie.

I lost myself in the game Emmett was playing. I didn't recognize it, but it was something to pass the time. I looked back to Bella, intent on having a conversation. When I did look over thought Bella and Jasper were having a silent conversation. Bella let me in on it once she saw that I noticed them. Sometimes we did this. Bella would project her thoughts and others to each other and then we would read theirs, but we only did it when there was something we did not want someone around us to know or hear. I quickly caught the gist of the conversation. It was about Emmett oddly enough.

_I don't know what's wrong with him; he's been having these emotions all day: sadness, depression, anger? What are you two getting from his thoughts? _He asked.

_Now that I think about it, not too terribly much. He's focusing on that game too much. _I answered and Bella projected.

_He's doing that on purpose, seeming lost in that game. He slipped up a few minutes ago. All I saw was Rosalie's face for a moment before he caught himself. She looked mad in his memory. Maybe they had a fight? _Bella thought. Her mental voice just as beautiful as her real one.

_Maybe. Should we ask him about it? _I asked.

_Here I'll do it. _Jasper answered. Bella and I minutely nodded.

"Hey Em?" Jasper asked, he was very careful in the way he said things. All he got in response from Emmet was a grunt.

"You alright? You seem kinda...down." Jasper said.

Emmett shrugged, but didn't answer.

"There anything we can do to help?" he asked.

"Yeah you can stay outta my head and just let me figure this out on my own. Bella can you block me so you guys don't read my thoughts?" He asked angrily and irritably. Bella just nodded and almost instantly his thoughts disappeared from me. "And don't you go reading them either. Just leave me alone guys, I'm not mad at anyone, just confused, so just let me figure it out without any interference and we'll all be fine." He said. Bella nodded again.

We sat in silence for a few minutes. It was odd to me. We had just been joking and laughing earlier last night. And now we see each other again in the morning and he is a big grouch? I didn't get it. Was there such a thing as vampire bipolarism?

Emmet sighed and my eyes wandered to him. He seemed to be deliberating something and decided against it.

"Breakfast is ready Ness." I heard Rosalie call from the kitchen. I saw sadness grow in Emmett's eyes when he heard he voice. So Bella was right, it _was_ about Rosalie.

Renesmee stopped playing with Bella's hair and jumped off her lap and headed towards the kitchen. I heard her say a very polite 'thank you Aunt Rosalie'.

Rosalie re-entered the room and looked at our silent bodies. Her eyes finally rested on my wife.

"Bella?" When she turned her head to show that she had her attention she continued. "Can I talk to you for a moment?" She asked. Just out of curiosity I looked into her mind to see what it was she wanted to talk about, but I couldn't. She must have asked Bella to block her before I could read anything.

"Sure." Bella said. She gave me a light peck on the lips before going upstairs behind Rosalie.

Well this was turning out to be a horrible day so far, and school hasn't even started!

**AWWWWWWWWW poor Edward. All frustrated and such. **  
**I'm probably going to change the summary of this story after I am certain about what I want to do in it. By the way, after looking at this I realized I forgot about Jacob: P Okay so lets just say he is still at home in Forks recovering from his mental scares. I will try to include him later. Any who please review and whatnot. Pics on my profile.**

**P.S. is bipolarism a real word?? It doesn't show up as wrong on my spell check but it just doesn't sound right to me. Lol.**

**Xoxo**

**Casey**


	6. Chapter 6

**Yaaaay. This was a really fast update. All the reviews keep me really motivated! So keep it up and chapters will be coming up a lot faster!**

This was the epitome of awkward. Sitting in the living room, in silence, with a brother who doesn't want to talk to you, trying to make small talk with your other brother who is not really paying attention, meanwhile the one person who could make this easier is out of the house, miles away so you cant hear her, and everyone in the house is fighting and the majority of us have no idea why. Oh yeah, good times.

"Cant wait 'til the weathers nice so we don't have to go to school." Jasper said. _Now _he decides to talk to me. Not in the last five minutes where there has been a completely one-sided conversation starring, myself. I just looked at him and grunted.

Alice came down the stairs then. She was wearing a yellow tank top...thing that had black strings that laced up on the middle. It was an odd piece of clothing that I'm quite sure if anyone else tried it on, they would look like a fool, but Alice could put on a burlap sack and still look amazing.  
(A/N Pic on profile.)

Our eyes met for a moment and I saw confusion cross her features and mind.

_Wow you could cut the tension in here with a knife. Why is everyone acting like this? Edward, where's Bella? _

I was about to answer but Renesmee called to me with her mind, she was finished her breakfast. I got off the couch and walked toward the kitchen. She was finishing drinking a class of milk when I came in. I smiled at her and took the empty plate from in front of her.

She brought her glass over to me. She was trying to reach up to put it in the sink, but she wasn't quite tall enough. She was still quite short and only came up to the middle of my thigh. I laughed a little and was about to reach down and just take the glass from her. But then I read the determination in her thoughts. It was quite funny to me, and the concentrating, adorable expression that was on her face reminded me of her mother. I smiled as an idea formed in my head. I stealthily reached down and picked her up around her waist. Her face was shocked for a moment before she realized what was happening. I lifted her so she was high enough to place the glass in the sink. Once it was in place I returned her feet to the ground.

Smiling she said a quick "Thanks Daddy." Before running off into the living room to look for her mother. She hadn't realized that she had left. My smile faded a little as I tasted the disappointment in her thoughts upon finding out that her mother had left before saying goodbye.

I came out of the kitchen after putting away the few dishes that were used for Renesmee's breakfast. She was standing in the middle of the floor with a disappointed look on her face. Without breaking pace I picked her up and held her against my chest. I was happy to see the smile return to her face.

"She'll be back soon, darling, don't worry." I soothed. Her mind was put at ease with my words.

There wasn't much left to do now, except wait for Rosalie and Bella.

Esme had since come downstairs and was sitting on the couch a few feet away from me. Carlisle had come down with her but had since left for work. Emmett was still sitting on the couch with a sullen look on his face. Bella must not have been too far because his thoughts were still blocked from me. I found my mind started to drift. I wondered about what Bella was talking about with Rosalie. They seemed to just be going upstairs, but then they left and went outside so nobody would hear. I wondered if Bella would tell me what was going on. I wondered if Emmett knew about what they were saying.

My thoughts were interrupted when Rosalie came crashing through the door with a look of pure rage on her face. I waited for Bella to come on the door behind her, but she didn't. That worried me.

Rosalie appeared to be in a very foul mood, and nobody had any idea why. Emmett now went from looking bored and sad, to looking concerned and confused. He must not know what this is about then.

Renesmee was still situated on my lap and was also confused by Rosalie's behavior. She touched my face and asked why. I just shrugged my shoulders. I had no clue.

Before anyone could say anything her eyes connected with mine. I was suddenly very, very glad that I couldn't hear her thoughts at the moment because the fury in her face made me think that I didn't want to hear the things that were crossing her mind right now. I stared blankly back into her eyes.

"You." Was all she said. Everyone in the room turned their attention to me. What had I done? "You'd better make sure that _wife_ of yours doesn't do anything stupid. Cause I'll kill her if she does." She sneered.

I felt the anger soak into my face. Nobody threatens my Bella. Not family, not friends, _nobody_. Not unless they want to answer to me.

I was about to get up and remind her of my personal rule when my little daughter did something that made me stop. She put her hand on my neck, my head was filled with a vision of me attacking Rosalie, the look of a monster on my face, the worried looks on all of our family members' faces, and she didn't want that. I stopped, but could still feel the angry grimace on my face as I turned away and Rosalie left the room.

Esme had an expression of pure shock on her face as she watched Rosalie start to walk towards the stairs.

"Rosalie!" She said chidingly. Like a parent who saw their child do something they could believe and had no words for them.

"I'm not going to school, neither is Bella, you can leave." she said dismissively walking up the stairs.

Bella wasn't going to school? Where was she? Was she coming back? All these questions floated through my mind and everyone else's.

_I don't know what's going on Edward. But I think we should just go. Bella will tell you later if it's really important. I'm sure she'll be fine anyway, she's not stupid. _Alice told me. I didn't fully agree. Yes, I agreed that Bella would tell me. But I wanted to go out and find her.

_Don't Edward. _Alice chided. _That will just make everything worse, I've seen it. _She reasoned.

I sighed. This was going to be a long day without Bella. I got up off the couch with Renesmee still against my chest.

"Cant you stay home too, Daddy?" Renesmee asked with a pout on her face.

"Not today." I said shaking my head. She frowned and leaned into my chest. I held her there for a moment before pulling her back and kissing her forehead. The rest of us, who were going to school, were already in my Volvo.

"I'll see you after. It won't be that long." _Doubt that. _I added to myself. Her face lightened a little bit but not much. I walked over to Esme and handed her over. She was still pouting. "Don't be sad, I'll be back soon, and so will your mother." I soothed. I took my index finger and tapped it on her nose. She laughed a little when she flinched, so did I.

I turned to walk over to the side table where my keys lay.

"Goodbye, Esme. Nessie." I said.

"Goodbye Dear." Esme replied. I could tell she was very confused about what just happened. We all were, but that would have to wait 'til later.

"Bye." Renesmee said, still sad. I turned my head and smiled at her as I opened the door to the garage. I was walking around the front end on my car when I heard her voice echo through my ears again.

"Daddy, wait!" She yelled. I stopped. She ran through the door of the garage and threw her arms around my legs. I saw Alice smile from the passenger seat.

_She's so cute._ She thought.

I leaned down to hug her back and kiss the top of her head.

"Have a good day." She said quietly. She leaned back and kissed my cheek. I smiled and nodded in return. Then she turned around and went back in the house.

I walked over to the driver's side of my car and got in.

Alice looked at me still with a smile on her face.

_Daddy's Girl, huh? _She thought. I laughed and put my keys into the ignition and started the car.

On the way to school I couldn't help this feeling, this horrible feeling, in the pit on my stomach, that things for us were about to go horribly wrong. I had no evidence to prove it, but somehow I just knew.

And now, I wished I had Bella here more than ever. I sighed. I wasn't sure I was going to make it through this day.

**Okay, that was more of a filler chapter I guess. But Renesmee was really neglected in the first few chapters of this story, and I didn't want it to seem like her parents didn't care. But I thought it was cute anyway. ******

**Xoxo**

**Casey**


	7. Chapter 7

**Sooooooooo sorry it's been so long since I last updated. Lets just say I've been enjoying my vacation a little too much…..but in apology for my absence I made this a long chapter. Forgives?**

**Review Please.**

Pulling into the school's parking lot I couldn't help but let out a long, desperate sigh. The only thing that made school bearable for me was not here, I was secretly hoping she would stealthily run out from the dark trees of the Alaskan mountains and join me. Pulling my keys out of the ignition I stared at the scenery willing her to appear.

The rest of my family quickly got out of the car. Not a word was spoken on the way here or when we all went our separate ways to our separate classes. I stayed behind for a moment. Waiting to see if maybe Bella would appear after all.

Five minutes past.

Ten.

Fifteen.

The bell that signaled classes were about to start sounded. If I didn't leave now I would have to run there to make it in time. I stayed even longer, then something happened that made me wish I had left for my class earlier.

While I had been standing there hopelessly waiting for Bella, the devil in the form of Lindsay Morrison had made her way over to me.

She was Alaska's Lauren Mallory, only about three times more pig-headed, four times more inappropriately dressed, and twelve times more attracted to all of us Cullens.

And when I say all of us I don't just mean the men…

I tried pointlessly and unsuccessfully to get away without her noticing me standing here, alone.

_Ooo, where does he think he's going. _She said, her mental voice matching her real voice in shrillness and annoyance.

"Eddie!! Where are you going? Come talk to me!" She yelled, everyone knew how much I hated being called _Eddie _and yet this girl would not let up. Her thoughts were constantly inappropriate and vile every time she so much as _saw_ one of us.

I tried, once again unsuccessfully, to get away from her and make it seem like I hadn't heard her, but she caught up with me and foiled my worthless escape plan.

"What are you doing Ed?" She said her disgusting hand yanking my shoulder back.

"Going to class, I'm going to be late. I have to go now." I said, trying to emphasize the "now" in that sentence. Noticing the skimpy inappropriate outfit she was wearing. It was a plaid bustier with a tight dark mini skirt If your wondering why I knew so much about clothing and names of things, lets just say when you have a lot of time on your hands and a crazy hyper sister who loves to constantly shop, you learn these kinds of things.

(A/N Picture on profile.)

"Why don't you just skip with me?" Cue the dramatic horror music. "I'm not going and you only have English."

I was about to ask how the hell she knew what class I had right now because we didn't have any of the same classes (I made sure of that) when my savior in the form of Alice came to my rescue.

_I'll save you Eddie Poo!!! _She mentally yelled while I cringed at both the level of her voice and the sound of that horrible nick-name.

"EDWARD CULLEN." She yelled. Mentally laughing at Lindsay's horror struck face. Even though she was attracted to all of us, if any of the girls started yelling either at us or her she would immediately flee. She might have been brave enough to be attracted to us from afar, but a vampire yelling and looking angry was more than enough to scare her away. It was our only weapon against her.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?!" she bellowed, now right beside me yelling in my ear. "ARE YOU SKIPPING?! CARLISLE AND ESME TOLD YOU NOT TO! DO YOU REMEMBER WHAT THEY SAID AFTER THE LAST TIME YOU GOT CAUGHT?! DO YOU WANT TO LOSE ALL OF YOUR PRIVALAGES?!?!!??!"

She was still laughing away in her head; I started playing along and adopted a scared expression.

"No." I said quietly. Pretending to be ashamed of myself.

_Oh my god. This is scary, even Edward is afraid of that girl. She looks like she's about to frickin kill him. _I heard Lindsay think. She was practically paralyzed by fear.

Alice started laughing even harder when she saw my expression and heard my reply. I saw her lips twitch as she tried to fight off a smile. I threw her a wink to let her know what she was doing was working.

"WELL THEN I SUGGEST YOU GET YOUR BUTT TO CLASS! AND YOU GO QUICKLY NOW DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!" she roared.

"Yes." I said, almost silently.

"WHAT?! SORRY I COULDN'T HEAR YOU. WHAT WAS THAT?"

"Yes, Alice." I said louder, Purposely making my voice shake. I turned around and headed towards the English building.

"Bye, Lindsay." Alice said sweetly before turning and following me.

Lindsay was still to afraid to reply. As soon as we turned a corner and were out of sight we both burst into hysterical laughter.

"Oh, my god." Alice said after we had been laughing for a few minutes.

"Nice job." I said, still with a goofy grin on my face, reaching up for a high-five. Alice quickly slapped her hand against mine.

"Lets get to class." Alice said, trying to force herself to sober up.

I turned and headed toward the English building at a fast pace. We entered the room just as the bell was ringing.

_Damn, almost got them. _The teacher thought upon seeing our entrance.

Alice and I took our normal seats beside each other, while Mrs. Chowhan started taking attendance.

"Oh. Where is Isabella Mason today?" We had told people that Bella's name was Mason because I wanted us to still share a name. She couldn't be called Cullen because that was my name and it would have seemed odd to the other children in the school and we had enough suspicion following us. We had decided on Hale but I had asked at the last minute if it could be changed to something that made her related to me. It was silly and unnecessary, but it meant something to me, and in the end Bella appreciated it.

"She's not feeling too well today." Alice answered. That was all it took to wash away my good mood. I looked at Alice for a moment, sitting on my right side, then to the empty seat on my left side where Bella always sat.

I sighed and tried to endure the rest of the day.

Lunchtime. Finally.

It felt like I had been waiting for days for a break from these monotonous, meaningless, classes. I ran into Alice on my way to the cafeteria, purposefully. When we entered Emmett was sitting at our usual table by himself, looking off into space and looking as depressed as he did this morning.

With a sigh I bought my unnecessary lunch and made my way over to our table.

Emmett didn't acknowledge that we had arrived and Alice looked upset about something. Without a look into her thoughts I could tell it was either about Emmett's mood or Bella's absence. I knew because that was my reason to be sad right now. Jasper was a little later than normal to lunch, but that was because he had gym and needed the extra time to help put equipment away.

"Hey Darlin'." He said to Alice upon entering, giving her a sweet kiss on the cheek, that made me miss Bella even more. "Sorry Edward. Hey Em." I gave him a small smirk but Emmett didn't respond at all.

I saw Jasper get frustrated. He was sick of being held in the dark by Emmett, Rosalie and Bella. He didn't like that he couldn't tell what was happening, and he planned to put a stop to it now.

"Okay Emmett I'm sick of this. Everyone has been acting really weird today and I'm sick of it. First you, then Rosalie and now Bella. I'm done. Tell us all what is going right now or I am going to get really pissed." Alice and I looked at each other, completely confused. Jasper was usually soft-spoken and polite, unless something or someone had threatened someone he loved. With a look into his mind I realized that it wasn't just his own anger that was fueling his angry reaction. It was all of ours.

I saw Emmett seem to think about something. Then it seemed he decided.

"It's Rosalie." He said. It was strange. Usually when Emmett spoke it was boisterously, border line obnoxious. But now when he spoke, it was quiet and careful. He was practically mumbling. Something he almost never did.

"What about her?" Alice asked. I whipped my head around to look at her. Was she _there _when she was yelling at me for no reason earlier?

"That's the thing. I don't know. It just seems like she's so distant. Like she doesn't want to talk to me or be around me. Last night when you guys weren't around I wanted to do something with her. Y'know, go out or something. And she just snapped at me. Just yelling and screaming about how I was crowding her and then she was saying some really hurtful things. I don't understand. And now she threatened Bells like that. Its just not like her. She wouldn't do that. She might have once, but not anymore. She's just not herself and I don't understand, I don't know what I can do to help." He explained. Sounding heartbroken.

"I agree, that doesn't sound like her at all. I saw a tiny bit of her talking to Bella. She looked so strange, not herself." Alice said. I looked at her and knew exactly what she meant. Rosalie looked, desperate. In Alice's vision, all you could see was them talking. Sitting together, on a fallen tree. My heart ached when I saw Bella's concerned face. Then Rosalie spoke.

That was all.

I sighed. We needed answers.

Then Alice was sucked into another vision.

This time Bella and Rosalie were in the house. Carlisle and Esme were there. They seemed to be arguing. Once again there was no sound. Bella looked angry, furious even, but also a deep sadness could be seen in her eyes. It hurt me to see her face like that. Carlisle and Esme stood in the background looking confused while Rosalie and Bella yelled silently at each other.

I hadn't realized that I had stood up until the vision was over. I must have stood when I saw Bella's face.

"Perhaps wasting time here isn't the best idea at the moment." I said sternly.

"Yeah." Alice said. "Let's go."

"What happened?" Jasper asked, finally speaking.

"Rosalie and Bella are fighting." I replied. "Hurry up lets go."

As soon as we were out of the cafeteria Emmett spoke.

"Edward, how bad was it." I was confused for a moment before I looked into his thoughts. Ah, he thought they were physically fighting.

"No, no, no Emmett. They're just yelling at each other. Not fighting like that." I clarified.

"Oh." He said, you could almost feel the relief as it radiated off of him.

"Oh! Wait." Alice said. She was having another vision. No. It was not another vision, it was the same one. Just more elaborate than the first, more detailed, as if seen from another view.

"They're not fighting now. We jumped to conclusions. That doesn't happen for a while. That's a relief I guess." Alice said with a sigh.

"No! You know what I'm sick of this. Look how on edge we are! The second you have a vision we are all rushing off with frayed nerves. I'm done! We are going home and finding out what the hell is going on with our women!" Emmett said to me directly.

I wasn't against it at all. I wanted to go home. See my daughter, comfort my wife and help my sister. I too was growing tired of all of this confusion.

"Lets go home then," I said. And for once nobody argued with me. They all just silently filed into my car. I jammed the keys into the ignition and sped off towards the house.

On the way home Jasper took out his cell and dialed the schools number to excuse us. He did a great impression of Carlisle.

When we arrived at the house we immediately heard a screeching noise that we all instantly recognized as Rosalie's yell.

Maybe Alice was wrong. Maybe they were fighting. That thought made me jump out of my car, leaving the keys in the ignition, and bolt for the house.

"-ever talk to me like that!" Rosalie boomed. "You have no idea what you're talking about or getting yourself into so you can just SHUT YOUR GOD DAMN MOUTH!!!!"

I was shocked to hear such things, but when I entered the house I was even more surprised to see who the hurtful words were directed at. Not at my Bella,

But Esme.

Carlisle entered the room just as the rest of us did. I had never seen a look of rage on his face so pure. He was always so peaceful and calm. He must have heard what Rosalie said…

"Don't you ever, EVER, speak like that to my wife, do you understand me!? I don't care how just you think you are, you will never open that mouth of yours and speak such things about anyone in this family! LEAST OF ALL ESME!" He roared.

We all stared at him from the doorway, mouths agape.

Rosalie retained her vengeful look and exited the room without another word, heading out in the backyard. I vaguely noticed that I still couldn't read her thoughts.

As soon as she did Esme started to sob, none of her children had ever been so disrespectful to her, and it came as a shock to see one of them say such things.

Carlisle went over to comfort her. My head turned toward the stairway to see my infant daughter hiding at the top of the stairs. She must have been eavesdropping.

When our eyes connected and she knew that she had been found out she came down the stairs. I saw little droplets of moisture streaming down her face.

"Renesmee…" I breathed.

"Daddy!" She responded. She ran over to me and launched herself into my arms. Her thoughts were racing, she replayed all the things that has transcended between Rosalie and Esme. Apparently, Esme was trying to comfort her or try to talk to her, as any mother would do, and Rosalie just yelled at her, saying things about how she did not know how to be a good mother and that she was doing a horrible job and so on and so forth.

The yelling was what had scared her most.

"Where's Mommy? You promised she would be home and she's not. Where is she Daddy? Huh? Where is she? Is she coming back or-"

I stopped her there.

"I don't know where she is, but she is coming back. Don't you worry, she just needs some time to think about things and then she will be home to help, okay?" I soothed hurriedly. Not knowing who I was soothing her or myself.

"Do you promise?" She asked while wiping her eyes.

Wiping away the remainder of her tears I responded

"I swear."

Soon both Esme's and Renesmee's cries subsided. Renesmee had fallen asleep against my chest and Esme had her head laid on Carlisle's shoulder, with Alice sitting beside her rubbing her back.

"Do you want to tell us what happened?" Alice asked carefully. She wanted to understand, and help but so far none of this was making sense, to anyone.

"I just went up to her room to see if she wanted to talk about anything, see if I could get her to tell me why she was so mad at Bella. And as soon as I said something she just changed. She yelled and screamed and threw things saying things, horrible things about not only me, but Bella too."

I felt anger soak back into my face for the umpteenth time today. So that was why Renesmee was so upset. It was not just the yelling but hearing bad things said about her beloved mother.

"What about everyone else? What did she say about us?" Emmett asked. He was hurt to know that his wife had said such things, but was desperate to know exactly what was said.

"She said some things about Edward but that's about all. I don't know why she is so angry. Oh, I'm worried about Bella too. She came home for only a moment a little while ago. She didn't say anything to me. Didn't even look at me, just took her keys and car."

I was once again worried for my wife. She had a tendency to bottle up her feelings, whether for fear of embarrassment or seeming weak to us.

"How long ago was that?" I asked.

"When Renesmee was napping so maybe…two hours ago." She said.

"Should I…?" I started to say "Should I call her or go try and find her" but stopped when I heard the familiar sound of my beautiful wife's car pulling into the drive.

**Okay chapter 7. My absence will definitely not be this long next time. Anyway thanks for reading and please review.**

**Also I have a quick question. How do you do that line thing that breaks up the page? I try to do it but it never works. Please help? Thanks.**

**R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E **

**Xoxo**

**Casey**


	8. Chapter 8

**Thanks for all the reviews peeps, much appreciated.**  
**~R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E**

**As soon as she pulled up to the house all I wanted to do was jump from my seat and fly out the door to her. The only thing stopping me was the fact that Renesmee was still fast asleep on me.******

**The engine of her car was cut and there was utter silence for a moment before I heard Bella quietly sigh, remove her keys from the ignition and get out of the car.******

**As soon as the door was shut my daughters' eyes flew open. She lifted her head up and quickly scanned the room. ******

"**Is that Mamma, Daddy?" She asked anxiously. ******

**I quickly nodded in reply, hoping that she would move so I could run out to my wife. ******

**Without another word she leapt off of me and sprinted towards the door. However what she didn't see was that Bella was already there, and if she kept running she might get hit with the door.******

**Flying across the room in less than an instant, I pulled her back from the opening door. Setting her back down on her feet. I looked up into the face that I had missed so much all day.******

**My hands freeze on my daughter as I realize just how much I have missed her. ******

**"Daddy! Let go!" Renesmee cries, grunting. I looked down and noticed that my hands had frozen around her tiny form and were keeping her in place when she wanted to run toward her mother.******

**Almost robotically my hands released her and she flew across the room into her mothers arms.******

**I straightened myself out and looked closely at Bella's face.**

**She looks tired, if such a thing was possible for a vampire. Her usually lively and expressive eyes look dull. Her face is creased with worry. My dead heart leaps as I witness her visible pain. **

**Even through her haggard expression she fakes a smile for our daughter.**

**"I missed you mommy. Where did you go? Daddy said you would be right back, and you didn't come? Why?" She hurriedly interrogated. **

**"I missed you too." Bella replied. With another imitation smile. "I'm sorry I didn't come back, I had some things to do." **

**"Are you going to leave again?" Renesmee asked, sensing her mothers' sadness.**

**"Not today." Bella replied uncertainly.**

**"You look tired." Bella commented,**

**"I was sleeping before you came home." Renesmee replied.**

**"Why don't I take you upstairs to your room so you can nap, then after that me and you will do something together?" Bella asked, obviously trying to preoccupy her so that she could have a conversation with the rest of us.**

**"Just us?" Renesmee asked. It didn't hurt me that she just wanted to be with her mother, she had missed her a lot. Besides I felt the same way.**

**"If that's what you want." Bella said.**

**Renesmee just nodded her head in reply. Bella picked her up and started to walk towards the stairs. Renesmee had her head laid on her shoulder with her eyes closed. Already half asleep in less than the second that had passed.**

**"Bye Daddy." She murmured groggily.**

**"Bye." I breathed.**

**_Can you come upstairs too? I need you. _****Bella projected to me. I didn't need anymore invitation than that. Without another word I bolted up the stairs beside her and took her free hand.**

**I quickly heard my family's thoughts. They were confused and impatient.**

**_Wait for me in our room? _****She asked once we had reached the top of the stairs. I nodded kissed her quickly on the lips, then leaned down slightly to kiss my daughter on her forehead before turning on my heel and heading toward our bedroom.**

**I opened the door to our bedroom. When we had moved here Esme had redecorated all off the rooms. Our room was a gold, black and white theme. The walls were black with gold accents and bookshelves with both books and artifacts on them. We had three couches, two gold and one white. The floors were hardwood, with a zebra print rug underneath a completely transparent coffee table. Our bed was in the corner, the blanket and pillows were all black and gold. **

**(A/N Pics on profile, seriously look at it it's SO cool.)**

**I took a seat on our white couch and listened to Bella's quiet murmurs.**

**Renesmee was making her promise to be there when she woke up. Bella was wearily agreeing and comforting and apologizing. Eventually Renesmee stopped speaking, her breathing evened out and she started delicately snoring just like always.**

**Bella stayed for just another moment before leaving. I listened to her quiet footsteps as she came toward our bedroom.**

**She stopped in the doorway, and then redirected her eyes from the floors to my eyes.**

**She still looked tired, but her dulled eyes brightened slightly when she looked at me. **

**Without any hesitation she walked over to our couch and sat down on my lap.**

**I pulled her close to my chest, her head immediately found the crook between my neck and shoulder. **

**"I'm sorry I was gone so long. I had to make sure of some things." She said. She sounded tired, rundown. **

**"I am tired. It's a strange feeling. It was a lot worse before I got home though. You make it better." She mused. **

**I pulled up her chin to my face and kissed her, passionately.**

**"Better?" I asked jokingly after I we had broke apart. I was glad to see a real smile grace her perfect face.**

**"Much." She replied. I leaned in for another kiss. I had missed her terribly, I knew we all needed answers, but at that point I simply didn't care. **

**Bella pulled back from the kiss. **

**"As much as I would love to keep doing this we have to go downstairs and talk to everyone. Oh, is…is…" She stopped.**

**"Is what?" I prompted looking deep into her eyes.**

**"Is she here?" She asked, I didn't need to ask who.**

**"No." I said sternly. I was still angry at her for what she had said to me this morning.**

**Upon hearing that Bella threw me an apologetic glance and smile. My face softened and I added. **

**"She left a little while before you got home." **

**"Oh, okay." We fell into a comfortable, loving silence after that. **

**A soft sigh brought us out of that silence. I opened my eyes. I hadn't realized that I had closed them.**

**"I feel better now. Come on. We should go downstairs and talk to everyone." Bella said. I nodded again, kissed her once more and got up off the couch after her.**

**Once we got to the stairs Bella took a deep breath, I wrapped my arm tightly around her waist, and took the first step down the stairs.**

**We descended the stairs at a slow, but even pace. I could felt he nervous energy coming off of my wife so I kissed her temple and was a little relieved when I saw her muscles relax a small amount.**

**After what seemed like an eternity we finally made it down the long staircase. **

**I was saddened to notice that Esme was still upset. But I pushed those thoughts away to focus on my visibly stressed wife. **

**I saw Bella's eyes flicker to Esme's face. Realization flickered into her eyes. I was somewhat surprised. I expected concern or maybe confusion to be the first thing to show on her face. **

**"Oh, Esme!" She cried running over to her. "I'm sorry! I didn't think Rosalie would go that far. I should have come home sooner." There was one moment of silence before we all caught our bearings. **

**"H- How did you know about that?" Esme asked, the epitome of confusion.**

**"You saw it happen didn't you?" Alice asked, not waiting for Bella's reply. "Ooo you're getting so good at that Bella!" she was genuinely happy that Bella had gotten her new powers. She didn't feel so left out anymore, so different.**

**Even with Alice's enthusiasm over Bella the tension in the room didn't ease one bit. We all wanted to know what was going on. **

**Realization flickered in Esme's mind. ****_Oh, I see. Is she…is she blaming herself. She is! Look at her. I will have none of that! _****Her motherly side kicked in.**

**"Oh Bella. Don't say that. This was not your fault at all. Besides, I'm alright. Its you I'm worried about, where were you? You were gone an awfully long time."**

**"Yeah, I was gone a long time. I'm sorry about that." She apologized, ****_again. _****But didn't continue.**

**"You're avoiding the question. Where were you? We left the house at 6:30 and you were gone before that. Now it's almost 1:30. And you just got home. Just answer Bells where were you?" Emmett asked impatiently. I didn't like the tone he was using. Could be not see how stressed Bella was? Was he that blind? Or perhaps he just didn't care. Either way it irked me.**

**Before I could stop myself I let out a loud growl. **

**"Edward its okay. He's right, I am avoiding the question." Bella soothed, coming back over to me and taking my hand. I intertwined our fingers.**

**"I went to find some things out. Rosalie said some things to me this morning. I had to be sure." She said.**

**"Okay what were these 'things?'" Emmett pressed. Bella sighed. She obviously was having a hard time just jumping right into telling us what was happening. **

**"Okay if you don't want to just come out and tell us then start with where you were." Alice offered. Her thoughts almost mirroring mine. **

**"I was in Sitka." **

**"Sitka? Why there?" Carlisle asked. **

**Sitka was one of the bigger cities in Alaska. It was roughly 100 miles south from here. I immediately started to do the math in my head. Running at full speed, Bella could have gotten there in a little less than an hour. That accounted for two hours of her absence. What about the other three?**

**"That was just what I was able to get from Rosalie. I saw in her thoughts that whatever she was hiding was there." Bella answered not meeting anyone's eyes. **

**I walked over to the couch and towed her along with me. When I got there I sat down and pulled her down with me. She sat beside me and leaned into my side for support. **

**"Okay, so you went to Sitka, what happened after that?" I gently reminded her.**

**"Her scent was all over town. I followed it into a dark shop. It was abandoned, but Rosalie's scent was everywhere inside of it." **

**I nodded in understanding. This was a place she had been often.**

**"I heard something after standing there for a moment. Like growling, only…it was different." She continued.**

**"What do you mean different?" Carlisle asked. I was a little confused as to how he already knew what had happened. Someone must have told him while Bella and I were upstairs. **

**"I mean it sounded like any growl would, but just…I don't know its…Ugh I cant explain. It just wasn't normal." Bella said, frazzled. I pulled her closer to me and started to rub my hand along her shoulder until I saw her relax a bit. **

**"Alright, so after you heard this growl what did you do?" Carlisle asked carefully.**

**"I followed it. I kept hearing it so I kept following it. It lead me to a trapdoor on the ground. I opened it and there was a cage."**

**"A cage?" Emmett repeated. Bella nodded.**

**"What was in the cage Bella?" Carlisle whispered. We al knew that the next words that came out of my wife's mouth could very well change our entire lives. For better or for worse we didn't know yet. But I was counting on worse.**

**There was a long silence after Carlisle's question. **

**Bella's eyes looked far off. I knew she was only here in body, it wasn't a vision in knew that much. It was just like she was deep in thought. **

**"Bella?" Carlisle asked, trying to get her attention.**

**Her eyes flickered to him but she didn't respond. **

**_God this sucks. Poor Bella, is that a vision? No its not I can tell, she's just remembering. It must have been really bad if her thoughts are sucking her in that deep. _****Alice thought.**

**_Hurry up and say it. What did you see!? _****Emmett's demanding thoughts shouted. He was angry. He couldn't believe Rosalie had kept something like this from him. **

**_Edward ask her. Ask her, she won't respond to me. _****Carlisle suggested.**

**"Love?" I asked. She looked at me. But still, didn't say a word. "What was in the cage Bella?" **

**A long silence seemed to follow. I was afraid we weren't going to get our answer. **

**But then, Bella started to speak. Barely a whisper. Only immortal ears would hear it.**

**"It was a child. Inhumanly beautiful…with blood-red eyes." **

**~R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~**

**Pictures on profile.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Thanks for the reviews!! Anyone who can find the Lord of the Rings lines in this chapter is now officially my best friend. BEST MOVIE EVER!!!!! Seriously I have seen them so many times I can rehearse all the lines from all three movies. I know I have no life…. : (**

**~R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~**

A few of us gasped, then complete and deafening silence filled the room.

Disbelief colored the thoughts of everyone in the room.

_She couldn't have, I don't believe it. _Alice.

_If she really did, and the wrong people find out about this, we could all be killed. _Carlisle.

_How could she do this to us, I know she wants a child, but to take away a small child's life? Oh, what are we going to do? _Esme.

_She's not lying, Damn it. _Jasper.

I could not make any sense of my own thoughts. First I was confused, then scared, then worried, and now petrified. Was I going to lose my family? My wife? My child?

I was frozen with the degree of my thoughts. As was everyone else.

Then I realized something. I could hear Emmett's thoughts. His mind was swirling, he was confused and didn't believe what Bella had just told us. Then he exchanged the confusion for anger.

_She's lying. I don't believe her. Rosie wouldn't do that. She's…She's…_

"You're a GOD DAMN LIAR!" He boomed standing to his feet with a menacing expression, breaking both the silence and my stillness.

"Why the hell would she lie?!" I yelled back also getting to my feet and walking over to him so we were face to face. I could feel the anger radiating off of him.

"I don't know why don't you tell us, Bella?" He said in a taunting way, looking over my shoulder and at my wife. I saw her through his mind. She looked…blank. I didn't have a word to match the emotion, or lack there of on her face.

Emmett softened, however minimally, when he saw her face. She wasn't looking at us, she wasn't even breathing. Not bothering to do anything.

"I'm not lying. I saw it with my own eyes. If you don't believe me, then maybe you have to see the child with yours." she said emotionlessly. I abandoned my argument with Emmett to rush back to her side.

I took her in my arms as the rest of the family mulled over what she had just said.

"I guess that's what we will have to do then." Carlisle said sadly. "We'll head to Sitka in about an hour."

Bella's eyes were still downcast and dark. She didn't respond to my touch, or my words. I decided it was time to take her back upstairs. I didn't think she would do anything and I wanted to do something. I wanted to leave now, find some way to fix this. I wanted to run around the house and forest screaming my head off if it would help.

I gathered her up in my arms and carried her up the stairs. Even though she was as light as a feather and there was nothing physically wrong with me, I felt weak.

Even though I didn't know the specifics, I knew I was about to lose something. Or more importantly someone. That thought made my usually strong legs weak. It made me want to let loose every muscle in my body and fall down the stairs, and when I hit the bottom I would start sobbing.

But I didn't. I had to be strong, now more than ever. For my family, my wife, my child. For everything I held dearest to my heart.

. . .

I had carried Bella up to our room and laid her on the bed; I lay down beside her but couldn't find anything to say to her. To me it seemed she had given up, she saw no way out of this, whether just for her or any of us I wasn't sure.

I needed to find some way to reassure her. To tell her I would protect her at all costs, that I would find her a way through this no matter how impossible it might seem.

"Bella."

I was answered with her eyes and not her words.

"Don't." I demanded. She furrowed her brow in confusion.

"Don't what?" She asked. I smoothed out the crease between her eyes. Then I trailed my fingertips over to her temple and down her jaw line.

"Don't be sad, don't worry so much. I swear we're going to make it through this." I soothed.

Her face twisted with sadness and she looked away.

"You don't know that." She whispered.

"No. Perhaps I don't. But you don't know that we're all going to die either." She visibly winced at my choice of words and I sighed.

"It seems like the most likely outcome at this point. From what I can see." She argued.

"Well, I don't know what you see, but I know what I do."

"What do you see?" she breathed after a moment.

"I see me and you, Renesmee, Alice, Jasper, Esme, Carlisle, Emmett, even Rosalie making it through this. I see all of us, standing together at the end of this. We might not know it now; we may not see our path through this yet. But I have faith that it will come. Our way out of this will come."

She seemed to think about what I had said for a long time. After what seemed like an eternity she looked up, into my eyes. She seemed to be looking for something. Insincerity? I was sure that she would find none, so I looked back at her confidently.

She sighed.

"Your right. I'm sorry, I was wrong to despair." She apologized, but with a little more light in her beautiful eyes.

"There is nothing to forgive." I said. Pulling her to my chest I murmured a few more words that were spinning through my mind.

"Whatever happens, wherever this may take us, I will always be standing with you at the end of it." I breathed.

"Whatever happens, wherever this may take us, I will always be grateful for moving to Forks. For meeting you. For marrying you. For spending eternity with you, even if it is cut short." She whispered back. I kissed her forehead, and pulled her even closer to me. No more words needed to be spoken.

We were going to make it. Whatever we had to go through would be worth it, as long as we had each other in the end.

. . .

Sometime later we heard Carlisle calling us to the living room. It was time to leave.

I held Bella closer for a moment, before letting go of her body but keeping one of her hands and getting up off the bed.

Before we reached the closed bedroom door, Bella stopped and pulled back gently on my hand. I turned around, she was a lot closer than I had anticipated and we almost collided, but we stopped just before we could.

Bella took and step forward and laid her small hands limply on my chest. She looked deep into my eyes. For a moment it seemed like she could see into my very soul, she looked as if she liked what she saw.

She smiled lightly though I didn't understand why. Nor did I care, as long as she was smiling.

"I love you." She said.

"As I love you." I replied. Wrapping my arms around her waist and pulling her in for a passionate kiss.

Just as our lips touched, our door was pushed open, effectively and thoroughly ruining the moment.

To my astonishment it was Emmett on the other side. He looked surprised for a moment; he had expected us to be on the other side of the room not right in front of the door.

"Oh, sorry." He said, though from his thoughts I could tell he was not just apologizing for walking in on us.

"It's perfectly fine." I said, replying to both his apologies. I had forgiven him the moment it was said. It was said in anger; I would have done the same thing he did if someone had told me something like that about my Bella.

He looked at me and I could see the regret in his eyes. I walked toward him and put my hand on his shoulder.

Our eyes met for a moment. Before we both sighed and looked away.

"Shall we?" I asked as I took Bella's hand again and walked out the door with Emmett right beside us.

"I'm sorry about what I said Bella. I didn't mean it, I was just angry. I was kind of caught off guard by it all y'know? And I guess I took it out on you, not that that's any excuse for-" he babbled before Bella interrupted him.

"Don't apologize Emmett. I understand and I am not and was never angry about it. Nor did I take offense to it." She explained.

"That's a relief, I guess." Emmett sighed.

"It'll all be okay Emmy." Bella said. She was rewarded by him with a smile. He couldn't resist smiling whenever Bella used a nickname on him. Whether it be _Emmy Bear, Emerson, Emmy Wemmy. _Whatever she happened to come up with on the spot.

Bella smiled too and I was glad for the lightness of the conversation. I couldn't handle too much doom and gloom for long. I had spent seventy years immersed in it and I didn't like to be reminded how it felt.

We reached the stairs and descended them at a familiar slow pace. My curiosity got the best of me halfway down the stairs.

"Not that I object, but why did you smile a moment ago?" I asked Bella quietly. I showed her in my thoughts what I was talking about, when she had tugged back on my hand and looked into my eyes before Emmett had opened the door.

She smiled once more before answering.

"It was just what you thought." She replied.

I tried to think back to what I had thought. After a moment I finally realized what it was that I had mentally spoken.

_For a moment it seemed like she could see into my very soul, she looked as if she liked what she saw._

So she was smiling about the _soul _comment. I smiled at her.

"When did you change your mind?" She asked sweetly.

"When I met you." I answered honestly.

She looked at me with love sewn deep into her eyes. I was sure mine looked the same. She leaned her head onto my shoulder and I kissed her hair and continued down the stairs.

Everyone was already in the living room ready to go when we got there. Esme would be staying behind to take care of Renesmee who was still asleep. Everyone stood near the door in couples.

Alice and Jasper stood in the door frame from the living room to the foyer, Jaspers arm tightly around Alice's shoulders.

Esme and Carlisle stood by the door, not touching but standing very close to each other.

I headed over to the wall across from the door and pulled Bella along with me.

Emmett stood a few feet away from us, alone. It didn't feel right without Rosalie here. Without everyone standing with their soul mate, it felt different, wrong.

I saw sadness cross Emmett's face and apparently so did Bella. She reached her hand out and took Emmett's massive palm firmly in hers. He looked at her with sadness running deep in his eyes. The expression didn't look right on his face.

Bella threw him a reassuring smile, and he gave her a sad smile back while intertwining his huge fingers with her thin ones.

"Alright, everyone ready?" Carlisle asked with a sigh.

Everyone nodded.

"Bella? You'll be able to…lead us?" Carlisle asked, careful of his wording.

She nodded.

"Alright, let's go."

He turned his head to quickly kiss Esme goodbye before he opened the door and stepped out confidently. We all followed at our own pace. Emmett was the last to exit.

We ran at a leisurely pace. I don't think anyone was in any real hurry to get there. Who would be?

The run that would have normally taken around forty-five minutes or so, took us all an hour and a half. We finally reached the city limits of Sitka and we all slowed our pace even more.

Taking one deep inhale I knew that we most likely wouldn't need Bella to direct us. Rosalie's scent was everywhere, just like Bella said it was. Just as I had guessed Carlisle did not stop to ask Bella where to go. He simply slowed to a humans pace and continued to walk through the streets. We all followed suit.

Bella's hands were still grasping both Emmett's and my hand. I thought that might look a little strange to someone walking by, so I gently pulled my hand away from Bella's. I knew Emmett needed her comfort more than I did.

She gave me an understanding look before her eyes were directed straight ahead again.

We followed Rosalie's and Bella's scent through the city for approximately twenty minutes before we reached an old abandoned building just like the one Bella had told us about.

Over the door there was an old weather beaten sign that read 'Mona's Fortune Telling'. I saw Alice show a small smile as she read it.

We walked through the squeaking door frame and onto old wood floors that didn't look safe at all. Rosalie's scent was thick in the air. I could also slightly smell the familiar scent of freesia and strawberries.

We all stood in that room for a moment, no words were spoken.

Then we heard it.

A low growling sound.

Bella was right, it _was_ hard to describe. Not a normal growl that you would hear from any vampire. This was higher, more wild, and _angry_. We all exchanged glances, except for Bella, whose eyes stayed firmly on the ground.

Fear was the main star in everyone's thoughts. Well, not _everyone's_. There was an unfamiliar mind whose thoughts were angry, furious even. This mind couldn't even form a coherent sentence. Just wild, uncontrollable rage and thirst.

"Where Bella? Where is it?" Carlisle demanded firmly but fearfully.

Bella did not answer or look up. Instead she dropped Emmett's hand and walked into another room. Her footsteps didn't make a sound.

Without hesitation I followed her. The others came too after a moment, their footsteps and mine causing an occasional creak in the ancient floor.

We all entered the next room and Bella was standing near the middle of it.

The room was trashed; there was debris and rocks all over the floors. The walls had spray paint all over them, some had profanities written across them. The walls must have once been a yellow kind of color, but they were now a sickly ashen shade. There were two windows in the corner but the glass was missing. Only a gray light from the overcast day filtered in through the window, adding to the gloominess of the place.

(A/N Pic on profile.)

I strode over to Bella and reclaimed her hand. She constricted her fingers around mine and swallowed.

"There." She whispered.

Five pairs of eyes darted to the floor in front of her, where the growling noise was getting louder. There, on the floor where she had directed, was a square cutout on the gravel covered wood. There was a handle on top of it made of rope. But nobody moved to open it.

After a few minutes of silence, except for the growling which seemed to continue without ever stopping, Carlisle finally stepped forward.

He kneeled down onto the floor and Bella stepped back a few feet, I stepped with her.

Carlisle's alabaster palm reached out and grasped the rope handle. He paused there.

The room was taken over by the loud growls of the monster under the floor. Nobody was breathing and as the seconds ticked by the growling seemed to get louder and wilder.

Finally after the growls had filled the room completely Carlisle seemed to get his confidence back, he took a deep breath and in one fluid motion yanked the trapdoor open.

A small child, no older than three, slammed up against thick metal bars that were level with the floor. They were worn, like he had been biting them or pulling on them much too hard.

Carlisle leaped backward in fear and landed ten feet away with his back against the far wall.

Everyone in the room seemed to step back some. I wrapped my arm around Bella's waist and pulled her behind me protectively.

The young boy had dark, short, curly hair. He had a thin face, almond shaped eyes that were a deep shade of red.

He held a small resemblance to Emmett, and to the small child Rosalie's friend Vera had had when she was still human. I understood a little more why my sister would feel the need to save this child. It was for the same reason she was compelled to save Emmett.

Nobody said anything or tried to get closer to the child. We all stood still as statues, fear in everyone's eyes.

The growls had quieted some, but not completely died out.

Nobody could find the courage to move or say anything. We all just stood in complete silence, every ounce of our attention focused on the Immortal Boy in front of us.

That was part of the reason we didn't notice a seventh person enter the room until they spoke.

"I told you not to tell them anything, Bella." Rosalie sneered.

**Oh my god guys, I have to tell you something, half way through writing this a massive beetle crawled out from underneath the keys on my keyboard. I tried to get it off, but it went back under so I just ignored it. Then like a few minutes later I hit the enter button and I heard a huge crunch. Ewwwwwwwww.**

**~R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~ (even if it's about the nasty crunchy beetle now dead beetle under my keys.)**


	10. Chapter 10

**Thanks for all the reviews; hopefully no beetles interrupt me this time.**

**Bella's POV AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! I had to do a bit of a recap because there were some things I wanted to explain without rewriting the whole story.**

**~R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~**

It had been almost three weeks since I had found out about my new 'gifts'.

I still wasn't..._fond_ of the idea, I guess you could say. It wasn't so much _having _them, as much as everyone always being _amazed,_ and_ proud, _or_ in shock _every time I practiced, or used them.

But, slowly, I was starting to get used to it and things were getting back on track.

I had called Jacob as soon as I knew about my new powers. Though, I had lied to him. _And _Edward.

I had never told Edward about the things, or rather visions, I was seeing. I was actually glad he didn't push it, but the horrific things I saw, almost daily, were never far from my mind. As we headed toward Sitka, my second trip today, I let my mind drift back to the last vision I had had before I was sure about my talents.

. . .

_I had just finished speaking to Carlisle. He was planning on surprising Esme with a gift because their anniversary was coming up. We were discussing things he could do for her._

_Eventually Emmett's whine of boredom drifted into the kitchen. _

_Carlisle smirked at me._

"_Perhaps I should go silence the insolent child." He suggested._

"_Perhaps." I replied. _

_He smiled and departed the kitchen asking Emmett if he wanted to play a board game with him. I stayed in the kitchen, losing myself to my thoughts. I faintly heard Edwards piano in the background. He wasn't playing anything particular, but still it was soothing._

_Suddenly, I couldn't hear the piano, or Emmett's whines, or anything from inside the house. I looked frantically around the kitchen, the tables and counters and everything seemed to be smearing away like melting wax. _

_Soon my whole mind had been wiped away into darkness. There was complete silence for a moment, nothing but black abyss and silence before me. But then, like the flash of a camera, there was something in front of me. The sudden change made me gasp._

_In front of me was a boy. He seemed strangely familiar to me; though I was sure I had never met him in my life. He was crying, alone. He was running through a house. It seemed empty. _

_The boy had short curly black hair, a pudgy baby face, and the most beautiful, huge ice-blue eyes. _

_Strangely enough, he sort of looked like Emmett._

_Faintly I heard someone calling me. The voice sounded familiar, it frustrated me that I couldn't recognize it. _

_I was sucked back into the vision. _

_The boy was still running through the house, tears streaming down his adorable face. Then he froze. He stopped screaming and just stared._

_Then he ran forward and I saw what he had been looking at. _

_A man and a woman, who I could only assume were his parents, were lying on the floor in a broken bloody mess. Their bodies were mangled, some of the limbs were missing, the mothers arm, some of the fathers fingers were gone too. _

_Their blood was drained. I saw bite marks all over their body. The boy was lying over their corpses screaming at them. _

"_Wake up! Wake up!" He would keep shouting while pounding his tiny fists on their chests._

_My heart broke into a thousand pieces. Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse for the boy, they did. I looked into the corner of the room and there, watching him, was a vampire. _

_I didn't recognize the man; he had short bleached blonde hair, a round chin, big ears and horrible, vivid blood red eyes. The boy hadn't seen him yet, he was too far gone in his parents' death to notice anything else. _

_The man stepped out of the shadow in the corner and slowly crept forward. He had blood coming out of his mouth and leaking down his chin, it went all the way down to his chest. I could only assume the mess on his face was from drinking the boy's parents dry. He continued to stalk forward, a smile on his blood smeared face._

_I was afraid for the boy, no, I was petrified. I couldn't watch this boy die. _

_The man reached his hand out, about to grab him. My vision changed._

_Suddenly there was no boy, or vampire. It was Edward in front of me. He was saying something, though I couldn't understand what it was. All I could put together was that he was trying to comfort me and that I couldn't breathe. It felt like someone was pushing down on my chest, hard. _

_But then Edward started to melt away again. _

_I couldn't see that boy again. I knew he was going to die and there was nothing I could do about it. That only made me feel worse. I was sure that if I saw that boy die my heart would explode and be beyond repair. _

_I willed my lips to move, to tell Edward something. I couldn't keep the vision away without his help._

"_Make...it...stop." Was all I could force from my mouth, my voice sounded foreign to me. Edwards blurred face pulled back for a moment. He stopped there, and even through the blurriness I could see the fear on his face._

_He seemed to get his bearings again, he picked me up and carried me to the living room, I didn't even have the strength to wrap my arms around his neck. He sat down on the couch with me in his lap. I knew I was blubbering something out, though even_ I _didn't know what it was. _

_Edward continued to try and soothe me, but I couldn't focus at all. I kept seeing the boy in my head. Then I started to think about it, what was that? I had seen him before, I knew that. But where? _

_I sifted through all of my memories, trying hard to remember his face._

_Out of nowhere I felt a burning pain shoot through my head. It was only there for a split second, and then it seemed that a million voices were talking to me, all at once. Also I felt strange, like the panic I felt had intensified, by about seven times and I also felt confused though I couldn't fathom why. _

Damn it I don't know what the hell to do, she's not even listening to me. I doubt she can hear me. _That sounded like Edwards voice, though I was sure that was not what he was actually saying._ _I thought about it for another moment, then I heard everyone's voices along with his, it was giving me a headache. _

_Thoughts? I randomly guessed. I started to think about it more, that would make sense. Did I... _take_ everyone's power? Was the boy I saw, a vision of what would happen in the future? But why did I see him? He wasn't someone I knew; maybe it wasn't the boy that I needed to know about. Was it this vampire? Was he the one who had something to do with what would happen in my life? _

_I didn't know, and frankly I didn't want to think about it anymore. But my vision kept getting blurrier and blurrier. _

_I needed something to help pull me out of this. And then I was given that help._

"_Just...look at me." Edward said. I couldn't make my muscles move, so he turned my head for me. I saw his face, almost completely melted away, and I tried hard to focus on it. Slowly, I made out the shape of his mouth, then his nose, then his chin, forehead, cheeks, hair, ears, and lastly his eyes. _

_I could hear and feel that he was trying hard to conceal his panic for me, so I put my fingertips onto his face. Then I tried to push some calming feeling into him, like Jasper did, though I could tell I wasn't really good at it._

_I saw the fear on his face, but more than that I saw the _pain_. I was the cause of it, and it made me feel sick._

"_Sorry." I murmured. _

"_Don't you dare do that." He said fiercely. _

_ . . ._

We had stayed on the couch like that for a long time. I had tried to think about the gifts I had taken. Eventually I told him about it and everyone in the family.

I practiced them, though it was slightly unnecessary. It seemed that when I took their gifts, I had also taken the knowledge on how to use them.

Earlier today, which seemed like a lifetime ago, Rosalie had told me she had been keeping a secret from everyone, that secret was that she had an immortal child. I had gotten mad; she could have put a death sentence on everyone in our family. She didn't tell me anymore about it, and I had gone to the one place that had flashed through her mind during our argument.

I had found the child and was completely shocked to see what he looked like. He was the same child from my vision.

I had let Edward think that I had just created an illusion and I told Jacob the same thing. But I had known this child was real. I just didn't think he would be impacting our lives this much.

I was pulled out of my thoughts when I felt Edwards hand slip from mine. I gathered from his thoughts that he thought it might look strange if I was holding both of their hands, and that Emmett needed comfort a lot more than he did. I showed him that I understood and we continued forward.

Eventually we reached the shop I had been to earlier. I didn't want to see the boy again; I knew what I would see when I saw him. I would see what happened to him. I would see him die.

"Where Bella? Where is it?" Carlisle demanded. I couldn't respond. I knew my voice would shake. So in answer I dropped Emmett's hand and walked confidently into the back room. I heard Edward follow without a second's hesitation.

I stood in the middle of the room staring at the cut out on the floor where I knew the captive boy was. An overwhelming sadness filled me as I though about how drastically his life had changed in the last few weeks. He had probably been happy, normal, and with his parents. Now he was being kept under the floorboards of an abandoned building, alone and probably scared.

I pulled myself away from my thoughts; Edwards hand was now holding mine and I gripped it tightly for comfort.

"There." I said.

Everyone looked where I had directed, and eventually Carlisle came forward. I could tell he didn't want to do this. He didn't want to believe that any of this was really happening. I agreed with him.

I didn't want to have another close look at the child. Once was enough. I stepped back and Edward stepped with me.

While everyone looked at the floor I looked away, out the broken window.

I was pulled away from this rundown, trashed place and into a vision.

It was me. I was standing in a clearing by myself. I was in a floor-length black dress; my hair was put up in an interesting way. I didn't recognize the place I was in. It was dark, the clouds were almost black and the wind was harsh. My dress was blowing wildly in the wind, as was my hair. But still, I didn't move. My face looked like a blank rock. My eyes were black and lifeless. I was just staring at nothing, for a long time. Then I started to cry. I sank to the ground, sobbing, my dress getting dirty and ripped, but I didn't look like I even noticed. The future me looked down, and in my hand was... a cell phone.

My sight came back to me, and I noticed that the room had changed. Carlisle had opened the trap door, and the boy was growling softly, Edward had pushed me partially behind his body and had his arm across my waist.

It was quiet, apart from the growling. Apparently I had missed their reaction. The silence was then cut by a voice I had learned to fear ever since this morning.

"I told you not to tell them anything, Bella." Rosalie sneered.

**~R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~**

**Sorry it's so bad. : (**


	11. Chapter 11

**I felt bad because of the horribleness of the last chapter so I posted this one today too. : )**

**~R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~**

I found it difficult tearing my eyes from the creature in the floor, but I did.

My sister stood in the doorway, everyone was surprised to see her, but Emmett was also sad.

I was ready to throw myself in front of Bella if I needed to, but one look at Rosalie's face shocked me.

It wasn't the furious and hostile expression that I had been expecting. She looked.._.sad_. She was looking at Bella, a deep sadness covering her eyes.

I turned my head to look at Bella, she was looking right back at her, the same sadness in her face.

"I'm sorry." Bella murmured.

"Why did you do it? I trusted you Bella! I came to you for help and you wouldn't even listen to me?! You know now don't you. You saw what really happened." Rosalie said, still not acknowledging anyone else but Bella.

"I didn't see anything. " Bella whispered. My grip on her tightened.

"But you knew about him, before I told you right?"

"Yes." Bella admitted.

I was confused, Bella knew about this boy? Why didn't she say anything?

"I knew the boy was attacked by a vampire but not that you had him. Not that you changed him." Bella clarified. Toward the end of her sentence her voice had turned from sad to accusing. It was a strange tone that I had never heard from her before.

"But that's just it Bella. I didn't change him. I didn't do anything wrong!" She yelled. I growled in warning.

"You didn't do anything wrong?! Are you delusional? The fact that you even had one tiny glimpse of this boy and didn't do anything means that you would be killed. Along with any of us who didn't do anything about him." Bella yelled back. I couldn't say anything; I had never heard Bella fight back like this. It made sense though. Everyone was threatened in this, Rosalie, Bella, Renesmee, me, Carlisle, _everyone_.

"Well it's a good thing you didn't do something then, right Bella? So now you can burn right alongside me!" That one statement made my vision turn red, and a frightening unfamiliar growl erupted from my chest. For a moment everyone in the room froze. I had to fight hard to stay in control of myself, while my whole family stared at me. I breathed in and out deeply to try to calm myself down.

"Don't ever, _ever_, say anything like that." I snarled at Rosalie. She sighed angrily, though I could tell she was somewhat relieved that I wasn't going to attack her. Though I wanted to, badly.

"Bella, I came to you because I needed your advice, your help." Rosalie finally mumbled.

"Then tell me. What happened?" Bella asked softly, trying to diffuse the situation as much as she possibly could.

"When we went hunting last week, I went off by myself. Eventually I smelled a bear, so I followed it. It was a lot farther away than I had expected. On the way there I heard a child screaming. So being me, I went to him." Rosalie said, rushing it a little and seeming awkward and embarrassed. I could tell she had trouble telling Bella and everyone about what had happened.

"So you just followed it, without even thinking for one tiny second you went after it?" Jasper asked harshly.

"Don't you dare try to tell me you would have done anything different. I know you would have done the same thing, so don't you sit there an-" Rosalie said angrily, staring daggers at Jasper, before Bella interrupted her ranting.

"What Jasper would have done is beside the point. The question is what did _you_ do?" Bella soothed, removing my hand from her waist and putting it in her own palm. It was then that I realized that I was still crouching like I was about to attack. After a moment I straightened my body out and stood right beside Bella.

"I went to him, he was lying on the forest floor, hidden beneath a fallen tree and some leaves. He was bleeding...and crying hysterically. I guess from the pain. He opened his eyes when I uncovered him, they were already red." Rosalie continued. The fact that they were already red meant that there was nothing she could have done to stop the change at that point. "I couldn't decide what to do, I knew that taking him would be a mistake, but I couldn't just leave him there Bella, I couldn't just let him-" Rosalie stopped as she was overcome by her emotions.

"It's okay Rosalie. You don't have to say anymore." Carlisle said.

Rosalie couldn't tear her eyes away from Bella, and Bella couldn't tear her eyes away from the floor. I could see the look in her eyes. She felt guilty. I pulled her close to me; she wrapped her arms around me in turn. Rosalie started to sob.

Emmett cautiously came forward and engulfed her in his huge arms. She didn't resist or hesitate in returning the gesture.

"I'm sorry Em. I'm so sorry." She kept saying. She knew she had made a mistake in keeping the boy. But being motherly was in her nature and it just wasn't in her power to leave a hurting child alone in the woods.

"It's okay Rose. I know this might sound hard to believe but I get it." Emmett said, he had already forgiven her the moment he saw her.

I stopped focusing on everyone else in the room and just tried to focus on Bella. She looked guilty still, but also like...like she was thinking really hard about something. Like she was trying to figure out a really difficult math problem.

I stared at her for a moment, trying to decipher her emotions. But then, I saw realization flash through her eyes.

"Rosalie." She said.

Rosalie looked up from Emmett's chest and met her eyes.

"Yeah?" She answered sadly.

"What have you been...feeding this boy? " Bella asked gently and fearfully. I felt my body stiffen up. The boy's eyes were red, vividly red. If she wasn't feeding him they would have turned black by now, and I was almost sure that he wouldn't be drinking animal blood.

Rosalie sighed. "I've been stealing blood from the blood banks in the hospital." She admitted. I felt a little better that this boy hadn't been feeding on live humans, but I still couldn't help but feel nervous.

"So you're the thief?" Carlisle asked. Rosalie nodded and smiled slightly.

"We have to destroy that thing." Jasper said fearfully. All of our eyes snapped to him.

"That thing? That THING?!" Rosalie demanded, her mood jumping back to furious in no time. "That boy is just as alive as you or me Jasper! Don't you be calling it a 'thing'!"

"Rosalie, look at i- or I mean _him_. Do we act like that? No. Even if he is 'alive' he can't control himself. What do you think you're going to do? Just leave him under these floorboards and come visit him on the weekends?" Jasper asked just as angrily. I understood his fear. He knew more on the subject of Immortal Children then anyone in the family. He had seen the havoc they could create firsthand.

"We all act like that sometimes Jasper. Or do you not recall when you tried to kill Bella?" Rosalie sneered. The memory shot through my head and hit my heart like a knife.

Jasper looked ashamed and Bella tried to comfort me. She kept whispering things in my ear like "It's okay" and "It doesn't matter anymore."

"One tiny paper cut was all it took to bust your inner demon out." Rosalie tormented. Jasper looked at Bella with pain in his eyes as more pain built up in my heart. Apparently Bella felt it was time to intervene seeing as how no one else was.

"Rosalie that has nothing to do with this. Jasper is right, we can't keep this boy. He just shouldn't have put it so harshly." Bella tried to calm but Rosalie wasn't having it.

"What about you Bella? I helped you when you wanted to have a child. I protected you didn't I? I could have let them take Renesmee right out of you before she even had time to learn how to breathe."

Bella's breath whooshed out of her lungs. She took a deep breath and looked back at Rosalie.

"That's not the same thing and you know it." She said breathlessly.

"Think what you want Bella." Rosalie replied.

"Do you honestly think you can keep him here and nobody will ever find out about it?! Thisw ont go unnoticed." Bella said.

"Well then what the hell am I going to do?!" Rosalie yelled, her face twisting with sadness as she broke out in sobs again.

She crumpled onto the floor. Emmett started to come forward, but Alice reached out and stopped him. I looked into her mind. She had seen how this would be resolved and apparently him going to her would ruin that.

Bella was the only one who could fix this. We all realized that. She was the closest one to understanding what Rosalie was feeling. Bella sighed, her shoulders slumping, and then she went to move forward.

I was hesitant to let her go. She looked up at me and told me with her eyes and her thoughts that she knew what she was doing. I let her body slide away from mine.

She kneeled down onto the dirty floor in front of Rosalie. Despite the situation I saw Alice wince as Bella got dirt on her jeans.

"Rosalie." Bella said softly. She seemed to be thinking very carefully about what to say next. One word could trigger a violent mood swing.

"I know this seems hard but you have to let him go." Bella whispered eventually. Rosalie reached out and took her hand, holding it tightly.

"I don't want to." She choked out.

"I know that too, but look at him." Rosalie didn't respond. "Rosalie, look." Bella demanded. Rosalie, sniffled and turned her head slowly. The boy was still up against the bars fighting to get out.

"I saw this boy a few weeks ago. Before I knew about my new talents." Bella admitted.

"It was this what was scaring you? Seeing him as a vampire?" Rosalie asked, looking confused.

"No. That's not what I saw. I saw him finding his parents, dismembered and drained." I winced and my face twisted with pain at my wife's pain.

"He was hysterical. There was a vampire in the room with him, but he didn't notice until it was too late to run away. Now look what's happened to him. He can't control his instincts and he is being kept in a cage. What did he do to deserve this?" Bella asked sadly. I found that my eyes wandered back to the struggling boy. Bella was right, he was only a small child, and he couldn't have done anything to deserve this.

"He didn't do anything." Rosalie said pensively. "Your right Bella. Keeping him here like this would be like...adding to the undeserved and cruel punishment. I should let him go. Let him be with his parents." Rosalie said, mostly to herself. "Though, I can't do it. Someone else has to." Rosalie said. Now eyeing everyone in the room.

"Okay," Bella agreed. "I think some of us should head home or something?" Bella questioned. Trying to give Rosalie an excuse to get away.

"Yeah," Rosalie whispered. "Oh! I have to apologize to everyone. Guys I'm really sorry. For both my actions and my behaviour. I was just stressed that someone would find out about him and would want to take him from me, that was why I told Bella. I thought she would help me protect him, but now I see that she is right, I'm not protecting him by keeping him here, I'm just hurting him more. I'm ready to let him go." Rosalie said, still a little sadly, but in a more accepting and understanding way.

Everyone in the room either nodded or thanked her.

"Come on Rosie, I'll take you home." Emmett said, coming forward. He was glad to see that this was all going to be resolved in the end. He gently picked her up off the ground and wrapped his arm around her waist. Just as they were getting to the door Rosalie stopped, and turned around.

"Rosalie?" Emmett asked.

She didn't respond. Instead, she strode across the room and to the child behind the bars.

She looked at him for a long time before murmuring

"I'm sorry, for all that I've done to you. I hope you find your family. You _real_ family." She said. She went to move away but hesitated.

After another moment she got up and quickly left the room, trying hard to not look back.

"Thank you, Bella." She said just as she left the room. Bella didn't respond.

Silence filled the room for a long time. Long sad silences seemed to be quite frequent lately.

Eventually Carlisle felt the need to break it, he wanted to get home and put this behind us as fast as possible.

"Okay, we need to do this now." He said softly.

Almost immediately Alice spoke up. "I can't do it. I can't watch." She said. Panicking a little.

"It's alright Alice; if you don't want to see it then you should go." Without a seconds hesitation Alice kissed Jasper on the cheek and bolted from the shop.

"Jasper?" Carlisle asked. Jasper nodded in reply. Bella was still kneeling on the floor, completely still. I moved forward. I knew I wouldn't be able to watch this, and neither would Bella.

_Edward? _Carlisle asked. I shook my head. _Okay, that's alright. Jasper and I should be enough. Get Bella out of here. _I kneeled down beside Bella, and place my hand on the small of her back.

"Love?" I asked carefully. Slowly she turned her head to look at me. My heart broke when I saw her expression. Her eyes were brimmed with tears and her lips were quivering.

"_Bella."_ I choked. She threw her arms around my neck and started to sob.

"Shh, it's okay. Come on let's get out of this place." I said, picking her up and running as fast as I could out of the shop. A place I hoped to never see again.

Bella was still crying when we got to the house. I pushed the door open. Rosalie and Esme were sitting on the couch, embracing each other, while Emmett stood behind the couch watching sadly.

Upon hearing me enter, all three of them looked up.

All three of their faces deepened in sadness just a little bit more when they saw Bella in my arms.

I didn't say anything to them, I just ran up the stairs and into our bedroom. Surprisingly Renesmee was still asleep. I thought about it only a moment. She must have missed her nap when Rosalie was yelling at Esme, and she must have woken up a few times with the commotion going on downstairs int he oast few hours.

I shut the door behind me and sat on the couch with Bella in my lap. I rubbed her back and tried my best to comfort her.

Soon her sobs stopped. And she lay quietly with me.

"I just... wish there was something I could have done." She sighed.

"I know Bella. Me too. But there wasn't. Sometimes, no matter how badly you want it, you can't change things. Just think about it this way. You saved him from spending eternity alone and in pain. And also, if it wasn't us who had found him he might have passed on in a much crueller way." I soothed. That was truly one of the things that I was grateful for. That we had found him, and not someone else like the Volturi. They would have put a quick and harsh end to him; he didn't deserve that on top of everything else that had happened to him.

Bella was quiet for a while.

"Your right." She finally murmured.

I smiled slightly at her, and I could see her _try_ to return it.

"Could you just...hold me for a while?" Bella asked uncertainly.

I smiled, brightly this time.

"Of course, love." I picked her up and moved both of us over to the bed. We lay together and thought. I didn't know what she thought about, but I knew what I was thinking.

I was hoping that the boy had found his way to whatever afterlife there was. I hoped he was safe, and happy, and with his parents. I hoped he felt like he was finally... home.

**Better than the last chapter?**

**~R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~**


	12. Chapter 12

**Thanks for the reviews. But remember, Reviews=motivation for me=faster updates. ; )**

**~R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~ (pwease?)**

The next few weeks after the…'incident' were, understandably, awkward and somewhat silent.

Rosalie had been quite distant still and Emmett was at a total loss as to what to do to help her.

He had eventually come to Bella for help, he asked her if she had any idea how they could get their relationship back on track.

"_Well, Rosalie went through a lot in the past few weeks; we all did of course, but her especially. I think just trying to jump right back in to our same old routine wouldn't be a good idea. Maybe you two should go on a vacation or something?" she had suggested._

Of course he had taken her advice; hers was the only opinion he really had. Everyone had been distancing themselves from each other for the past little while. Bella and I had taken off for a week after the whole ordeal.

We had taken a trip back to Forks, we wanted to check on Jacob and make sure he was okay, and see Charlie, but also I think we just needed the time alone.

Jacob had been staying in La Push with his father ever since we moved to Alaska. He couldn't just leave his pack, and they couldn't exactly follow him all the way here. He called often and came up on holidays or his days off to see us.

The last time he had come things hadn't exactly turned out great. Bella had unknowingly projected illusions, or visions, to him and he had left 2 days after he had arrived.

While we were there Bella had been apologizing profusely to him about the whole thing, he promised to forgive her only if she promised to stop apologizing.

We had come home and found that Jasper and Alice had recovered, and were on speaking terms with everyone else in the family. Alice had immediately taken Bella shopping so they could 're-bond' as she put it. Jasper and I had played a stupid video game until they came back.

The only people we were worried about were Rosalie and Emmett now. They hadn't said where they were going, and they didn't know when they would be back. They could have literally walked in on us at anytime.

"What should we do today?" Alice asked. Snapping me out of my thoughts.

"I don't know." Bella said, entering the living room after she had just put Renesmee down for a nap and sitting on the couch with me. Alice put on a pout that let us know she was thinking. Suddenly her eyes snapped up and she smiled a devilish smile.

"Not shopping." Bella said quickly. Alice frowned.

"Well I don't know what to do then. Edward what do you think?" She asked.

"I'll do whatever Bella wants to do." I answered immediately.

"Pfft. Thanks, that was a big help." Alice replied sarcastically.

I shrugged.

Suddenly a mischievous smile was on my wifes face.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing." She replied, quickly making the smile disappear.

I raised my eyebrows at her and was about to push the matter when the doorbell rang. We all sat still for a moment. I looked to Alice. She shrugged her shoulders, showing me that she didn't know who it was.

"I'll get it." She said evenly.

She got up off the floor fluidly, where she had been sitting cross-legged for the majority of the afternoon, and headed toward the door.

Bella looked expectantly to the door.

Alice swung it halfway open, then squealed and jump on whoever was at the door. The door was still blocking my view of whoever was there.

"It's about time you two got home!" She said while finally letting them in.

Rosalie and Emmett. They had come back, and they looked completely different from the last time I had seen them. Well, actually that wasn't true, technically, of course they looked the same, but they looked a lot happier then they had before they left. Bella had been right; a vacation was what they had needed.

"Geez, Edward. You don't look to happy to see us." Emmett said sarcastically. I had been lost in my thoughts and forgot to welcome them.

"Sorry, I am happy to see you. I just didn't know it was you two." I said smiling.

"Who else would it have been? Were you expecting someone else?" Emmett asked.

"Come on Emmett, he's allowed to be a little surprised. Since when do you ring the doorbell? Usually you just barge in obnoxiously." Bella defended me. I laughed.

"Oh yeah? Well your going to regret that comment, little sis. It's been a while since me and you raced hasn't it." I rolled my eyes.

"Not this again Emmett." Emmett could never be beat at anything so he would make up these ridiculous contests and cheat his way into winning.

"No Emmett, I'm happy you're back, but I don't feel like doing a ridiculous relay race right now." Bella said.

"Hmm, well then maybe you won't be the one racing." Emmett said suggestively. Bella had blocked his thoughts from me before they had entered so I couldn't read his thoughts to know what they were talking about. But Bella could.

She sprung off the couch and started to back away from him. He crept closer with an evil expression on his face.

"Emmett, Don't. You. Dare." She threatened.

"Or what?" He taunted.

Bella didn't answer; she just gave him an angry glare. I was still confused as to what he was planning on doing.

Without warning he leaped forward and tried to catch Bella around the waist. She quickly jumped away and Emmett swore.

Jasper entered the room upon hearing the commotion.

"Jasper get her!" Emmett yelled.

Jasper looked at towards Bella. She threw him a pleading glance and he just smiled and jumped toward her.

She quickly dodged. She was the second fastest in the family. Next to me, of course.

"Everyone gang up on Bella!" Alice yelled laughing and lunging for her as well.

"This isn't fair!" Bella yelled. I jumped off the couch to help.

Now there were four of us darting around the living room, all of us laughing our heads off.

Emmett jumped to try to catch Bella, I jumped to catch Emmett, Jasper went for Bella, and Alice went for me. We all collided, with the exception of Bella, and landed in a pile on the floor with a groan.

Bella stopped running and stared at us for a moment. Slowly a smile spread across her face.

"You think this is funny?" I questioned in mock seriousness, she laughed out loud and nodded at me.

"You're going to regret that." I said. I leaped out of the pile of bodies and pinned her against the wall, with her arms above her head

"Still think its funny?" I whispered seductively. She looked into my eyes for a moment. Then she shook her head, I smiled.

"Good." I said as I leaned in to kiss her.

"Awwwwwwww, gross! You ruined the game Edward. That's not part of the rules!' Emmett complained.

I laughed and Bella and I moved away from the wall, still wrapped up in each others arms.

Esme and Carlisle entered the room then.

"Well now that you're all done terrorizing the family I can greet my children!" Esme said coming forward and enveloping Rosalie and Emmett in a huge hug.

She pulled back and looked at Rosalie. "How are you dear?"

Rosalie smiled, "You won't have to worry about me anymore. I'm just glad to be home."

Carlisle came forward and welcomed them too.

"Y'know seeing as how me and Rosie just got home and all, I think we should get to decide what we do this fine evening." Emmett suggested formally.

"Oh? And what is it you want to do?" Esme asked.

Emmett smirked. "Baseball?"

Alice smiled. "We'll have to wait 'til tonight, that's when we'll have enough noise and cover to play."

"Alright!!!" Emmett yelled a little too loudly.

"Uh, maybe we should be a little quieter? Renesmee is asleep right now." Bella suggested.

"Are you kidding me? That kid sleeps like the dead." Emmett responded, while collapsing onto the couch and turning on a football game. Things were officially back to normal.

. . .

Fortunately for us, the storm had hit a few hours earlier than we had expected, so we were able to bring Renesmee along with us for the first time.

_Un_fortunately for us, Emmett had changed his mind about playing baseball and decided to play football instead. Don't get me wrong, we all like sports, but when Emmett plays football…he plays hard. He's like an animal when he plays. Even _I'm_ terrified to play against him.

We left the house around 7:30, I had Renesmee. Alice had insisted on dressing her up in a cute sports outfit, she was wearing a jersey that said CULLEN across the back. I had relented because I'd agreed that she looked absolutely adorable. Bella had just laughed.

"Why can't I play Daddy?" Renesmee asked me for the tenth time.

"Because you're too small, and I don't want Emmett to trample you. Seriously Ness, when you see him you wont want to play anymore."

"Well, Mommy would protect me, and you. You guys wouldn't hurt me." She reasoned.

I sighed. I had run out of arguments, but once again Bella came to my rescue.

"What about your shirt Ness? It would get ruined if you played. Besides, you have a very important job, you get to distract your father while my team wins."

"Really? And it's a jersey momma." Renesmee said.

"Yes really, and my apologies about the _jersey_." Bella replied.

"Okay!" Renesmee agreed wholeheartedly.

"Good." Bella replied, kissing her forehead and running off to the center of the field where everyone gathered.

I, too, ran and got to the center of the field. Esme would be reffing, and looking after Renesmee while we played. I handed Renesmee to Esme and went to stand by Bella.

"Hey Grandma, I have an important job to do." I heard my daughter say matter-of-factly.

"Oh really? And what would that be?" Esme asked, playing along.

"Mommy says I have to distract Daddy so her team wins!" She explained.

"Oh yes that is a very important job." Esme agreed nodding.

"Okay, the teams will be 3 against 4, is that alright everyone?" Carlisle asked bringing everyone to order. We all nodded.

"Okay they will be Emmett, Edward, and Alice, versus Rosalie, Jasper, Bella and I. Does everyone agree." We all nodded again.

"Alright, Rock paper scissors for the ball." He said stepping forward to Emmett. They bounced their hands three times before both landing on a different result. Emmett had rock and Carlisle chose paper. Meaning their team won and got possession of the ball.

"Let's go." Carlisle said.

I don't really know what came over Emmett then, but suddenly he felt the need to intimidate Bella.

"You're going DOWN Bells. D-O-W-N! You're going to be eating dirt while my team wins!YEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" He yelled. I could see Bella trying really hard not to laugh. I didn't have that much strength, I burst out laughing.

We all got into alignment, Carlisle hutted the ball to Jasper, and instantly Bella, Rosalie and Carlisle ran down the field. I counted to five in my head and then rushed forward to Jasper. He faked a throw to Carlisle and then threw it to Bella instead. She caught it easily and turned to run as fast as she could down to the end zone.

I turned to try to chase her as well but I was too far behind.

Suddenly Emmett came out of nowhere and was running behind Bella. He was growling and the look on his face was terrifying. Bella turned back to look at him, her eyes widened and she tried to run even faster.

Emmett started growling even louder and he was almost in reach of her.

Bella started laughing while she was running, and Emmett got even more frustrated, the more angry he got the harder she laughed. Then _I_ couldn't help but laugh, then _everyone_ started laughing while they were running towards the end zone.

**(A/N the field is **_**really**_** long)**

Bella was almost to the end zone, but Emmett was just about to grab her arm and tackle her when we heard a tiny voice cry out.

"Uncle Emmett!!!!! HELP!!!"

Emmett stopped running immediately and whipped his head around to where Renesmee was. Bella ran across the End Zone and scored a touch down.

After she was safely across the line she collapsed onto the floor laughing.

I turned to look at my daughter as well.

"Yay!!! Go mommy!" She yelled. She had been faking. Distracting our team just like her mother had said.

I started laughing again too. I reached where Bella was and fell onto the ground beside her. We were both still laughing hysterically; Emmett looked mad for a minute and then started laughing as well, joining in on the joke.

"Oh my god. I don't think I have laughed that hard _ever_." Bella said sobering up a bit.

I on the other hand was a lost cause. I couldn't bring myself to stop, the whole situation seemed too funny, the way Emmett chased Bella, he was a huge monster running after Bella who was tiny. Then the enraged look on his face as Bella was laughing out loud while running.

After a long while everyone had stopped laughing, including me. But still every once in a while someone would let out a little chuckle at the situation.

"Okay let's get back to the game." Carlisle said, with a smile still on his face.

We had returned to the game, my team was leading but only by a little.

"Last time everyone." Esme warned.

We all went into this round with more enthusiasm then before. Bella's team had the ball and if they scored a touchdown they would win, our team would do everything we could to make sure that did not happen.

Carlisle hutted the ball to Jasper, Rosalie ran around for a handoff, while Carlisle and Bella ran down the field. I ran forward to try to get Rosalie.

But the handoff was a fake. Jasper, instead threw the ball to Bella, she caught it and started to run.

Emmett came out of left field and started to chase her. I turned around and followed suit.

Bella was running hard and it looked like we wouldn't be able to catch her. But then, her stride faltered. All it took was that one mistake and Emmett had her.

He leapt forward and threw all his body weight into her. The both of them went flying. Bella's back hit a thick tree, the trunk cracked, but didn't break completely. Even for vampires, the tackle looked brutal.

Emmett got up and felt the need to gloat.

"YEAH! Couldn't outrun me that time could ya Bells? Didn't have Renesmee to distract me huh? Who's your daddy now?!" He said. Bella still hadn't gotten up. As we all got closer we listened harder. Over Emmett's yells of victory, I could hear there was something wrong.

Bella was gasping. Like she had had the wind knocked out of her. But that was impossible. I ran forward and cupped her face between my hands.

"Bella, what's wrong? Are you okay? Are you hurt?" I demanded. She didn't answer.

Everyone came forward and Emmett stopped chanting.

"Bella?" Emmett asked. "Oh god, did I hurt her?" He said horrified, trying to come forward.

"I don't know, what did you do?!" I asked angrily, if he had hurt her, I would be furious.

"Nothing!" He said.

Bella stopped gasping and just seemed to stare. I didn't get it.

"Is she having a-" Alice started to ask, but she stopped, she stared for a moment.

"Alice?" Jasper asked worriedly.

She didn't answer, she just started gasping and choking, it was worse than what Bella had been doing. She collapsed onto the ground. Jasper caught her and continued to yell her name. Bella was still staring into space. Then I understood. It was a vision. Though I knew it was bad, Bella and Alice wouldn't have reacted like they did if it wasn't something horrible.

I think most of us understood then. Alice didn't stop gasping like Bella had though. They seemed lost within themselves for a few minutes, I was grateful Renesmee had fallen asleep. She would have been panicking if she saw her mother like this. I wasn't panicking but I was still scared. The fact that she wasn't hurt took away some of the need for alarm.

Then at, the exact same second, Bella and Alice came to.

Their eyes immediately met, and perfectly in sync, they said.

"_No._"

**Ha, I'm so evil. **

***sighs* it's my birthday tomorrow, I hate birthdays. But you can make it a little better by reviewing. ; )**

**~R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~**


	13. Chapter 13

**Thanks for all the reviews and Happy Birthdays. I love you all, good guess temporaryinsanity91.**

**I don't know what it is with me and insects when I'm writing. This time a moth that was like this big ~from here….To here~ freakin attacked me. I swear to god I have bruises. **

**~R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~**

"What? What is it? What's going on?" Carlisle asked. I ignored him and continued to stare at Bella. She looked like she couldn't speak. Alice looked the same. They stared at each other like it was the last time they would ever see each other. It frightened me.

I tried to listen to Alice's thoughts,

_Oh no. We were to late what are we going to do if t-_

Her mental voice was cut off suddenly. I turned my head back to Bella. She was not looking at Alice anymore. She wasn't looking at anyone.

"Don't do that, tell me what happened. Tell me what's going on." I demanded. She looked at me with desperation in her eyes.

"_Bella_." I said. My voice sounded pleading, even to me. I heard my family speaking to each other in the background. They were trying to talk to Alice, but she wouldn't say anything until Bella did.

Her eyes were dark; our previous mood of playfulness had all but disappeared.

She didn't say anything; slowly she reached her hand up to my face and held it there. I looked at her; my gaze didn't waver in the slightest.

In an instant, what I was seeing changed.

I went from seeing nothing but my wifes beautiful face, to being sucked into a black void. But then the black melted away. Instead of a black abyss I saw figures, a lot of them, 5, 8, 10 of them, more and more kept emerging from the dark.

One stepped forward from the group of them; his head was bent towards the ground. Slowly he lifted his face, instantly I recognized this man. Caius.

My heart plummeted. There was a cruel smile playing on his disgusting lips. One word came out of his mouth.

_"Justice."_

Then it seemed to 'zoom in' on his grotesque eyes. If you looked beyond the milky red iris' you could see something. A reflection. Only inhuman eyes would be able to truly understand the image. I looked closely at it. It was all of us. Alice, Jasper, Rosalie, Esme, Carlisle, Emmett, Me, and...I forced myself to think the last name.

_Bella._

I was snapped back into reality. Bella was still in front of me, nothing had changed.

Except that now I knew. I knew that I was going to lose everything. I'd felt this same feeling weeks ago, but gotten through it. Now I was certain that there was no way I would be so lucky this time.

I faintly heard Alice telling the rest of my family what had just transpired. I was too lost to care.

All I could do was stare at Bella with my mouth hanging open. I wanted to say something. _Anything_. But the words just wouldn't form on my tongue.

I tried to make sense of my emotions. First I was desperate. I would give anything; do anything, to keep this from happening. That emotion quickly disappeared when I realized there was nothing I _could_ do, nothing I _could_ offer, to change what was going to happen.

Then I couldn't stop thinking about it. I kept replaying the vision in my head. Over and Over. Trying to find some kind of loophole. Something that would reassure me that that was not truly our fate. I found nothing.

After that I found myself filling in the rest of the blanks. What was to happen. Who they would kill first. Would it be Rosalie? Or Carlisle? I played different scenarios through in my head over and over.

A final brutal scenario played through my tortured mind. Bella. Dying. She lay in a pile of ashes and fire, with Renesmee cuddled up against her chest. It seemed my little daughter was already dead; her neck appeared to have been snapped. She was still and lifeless in the midst of the inferno.

Bella, though, appeared to be perfectly unharmed. Though the fire was soon going to overtake her small body.

Her head was turned toward me; her eyes were filled to the depths with sadness and grief. But also, there was something else present in her eyes. _Trust_.

Unyielding trust that I would save her. I felt myself trying to come forward. But I soon found that my body, or mind, was being held back by an unseen force.

The flames started to lick across Bella's skin. Her eyes never left mine. Soon her diamond skin could hold out no longer and it caught fire. She was burning alive, while I watched, she started to scream and writhe and yell my name. I could do nothing but watch as-

"Stop! Just stop please, I cant..." Bella choked out, jarring me from my masochistic thoughts. Her voice was breaking with every word she spoke.

My eyes refocused on her face. She was looking everywhere but at me. When I saw her face, the same beautiful face, I knew that I was going to lose, a new emotion burned within me.

Anger. Fury. Violence. Animosity. Hatred. Brutality.

All of these harsh emotions and brutal actions could not even begin to describe the new white hot feeling burning deep inside me. My body convulsed with rage and I couldn't stop myself from springing up from where I stood and snapping twenty trees in half, all the while growling like I was some kind of animal.

I raised my fist, ready to thrust it through the tick tree in front of me, when I felt something small wrap around my wrist, holding me back.

I instantly recognized the grip of my wife.

My love. My world. My life. My everything.

The very person I was about to lose forever.

"Please stop." she murmured. I smelt the rest of my family; they were all around me, watching as I had a complete mental breakdown.

I relaxed every muscle in my arm. Bella let go of my wrist. I was beyond caring now, my arm fell limply to my side.

. . .

We all stood there for what seemed like forever. I vaguely noticed that some of the family had left. Esme had taken my daughter home. Rosalie and Alice had also left during the time we had all been standing there.

Carlisle, Jasper, Emmett and Bella were the only ones that had stayed with me the whole night.

Sometime around dawn Emmett finally gave up. With a sigh he turned away and disappeared into the morning breeze.

I was completely lost within myself. The strange thing was what I was feeling seemed oddly familiar to me. I had felt emptiness like this before. When I was without Bella, this is what it had felt like, to lose it all.

Some of the people I held closest to my dead heart stayed with me. Bella was still here. Though to be honest, I wasn't _exactly _sure of that. I could smell her, and I could feel her presence, but she wasn't breathing, she hadn't made a single movement in all this time. I knew Jasper and Carlisle were still standing around I could hear their even breathing. Was I breathing? I wasn't exactly sure anymore.

. . .

More time passed, finally around midday Carlisle tried to talk me out of this depression.

"Edward?" He asked cautiously, he surprised us all by breaking the dread filled silence. I couldn't respond. I was wondering why nobody else was responding the way I was, I tried to look at my actions from a third persons view, to someone else my reaction might seem strange, stupid even. But to me it wasn't, hadn't I just made it through something like this? I had thought Bella and I had finally made it through our troubles. We paid a high price for our happiness, and it was worth it. But now, all that pain and suffering, seemed like a waste to me, because in the end, no matter what I paid for it, I wouldn't make it out of this with my happiness...family...love...life.

"Edward." Carlisle tried again, though this time when I didn't respond he continued on as if I had.

"You have to stop this, we have to go, and we need to do something. I think that maybe we can still do something about all of this. We might still have a chance."

What a fool. He was relying on hope, when little did he know, we had _none_.

"You can't just stand here until they come to kill us all Edward, you have to try."

I have to try? I have _tried_. I fought hard to get to where we all are now, and now that was going to be ripped away from me.

"Come on, son. I know your overwhelmed, I know how your feeling-"

I couldn't stop the rage filled words from spilling out of my mouth. I spun around.

"You know how I _feel_? How could you possibly know how I feel Carlisle? You don't know what its like to lose your entire world, I've done it before. Do you know how hard I've worked, how much pain I've had to go through to get here. To be here? No you _don't._ I'm about to lose _everything_ and _everyone_ that I give a damn about so sorry if I'm not skipping through the tulips with a smile plastered on my face about the whole thing!" I yelled.

In my subconscious, I knew how selfish my words sounded, I was definitely not the only one who'd had to sacrifice to be here. Carlisle seemed to recognize that my mouth and subconscious were not on the same team at the moment.

"Okay. Your right, I _don't_ know. I've never lost the love of my life; I've never had to face what you did. But right now. In this moment, that is about to happen again. And do you know what's going to happen if you just sit here? You're going to let them take it, take everything. We might actually have a chance Edward, if we regroup and look at this logically." He reasoned softly.

"_I am_ looking at this logically. There is only one logical way that this is all going to end. There is no other way out of this now." I said back. In my mind I was confused. These words were not mine; I would never say something like this. I didn't know why I was despairing now. I knew I should be strong right now. I should be doing what Carlisle was saying, I _wanted_ to. But in my mind I couldn't move past the fact that I was going to _lose_.

"Can you even hear yourself right now? This isn't you Edward. I think that you are so blind and distraught by grief right now that it's messing with your judgment. And standing here in the forest isn't going to help that. Come on bro, let's just go home and try to cool down a bit." Jasper joined in.

I didn't have an answer to that. All I could do was shake my head. I didn't want to go home. I didn't want to be surrounded by all my memories. I wouldn't be able to hide, get away from it.

"Don't be like this." He said.

"I don't understand." I said.

"What?" Carlisle asked.

"I don't understand why...what more is there. I thought that...this was going to be it. All of us were supposed to be okay now. But instead...we have to..." I stopped. Slowly, I felt some of the anger and numbness fill in with confusion.

"I know Edward. I know." Carlisle said.

I looked away, to the East. Where the people who planned to kill everyone I cared about dwelt. Did they even care? Did they acknowledge what we were going through right now? Or were they totally oblivious to our pain?

"Can we go back home now?" Carlisle asked.

"I can't." I responded.

"Why?"

No response.

Carlisle sighed. "Well Edward you leave me no choice. I won't sit here and wait to be killed. If this is where you choose to stay...so be it. Goodbye."

He turned to leave and walk away.

"Edward." Bella breathed finally. She seemed to have turned to stone during the course of the night. I think everyone knew that if there was anyone who could get me out of this pathetic hopelessness it would be my Bella.

Carlisle stopped walking and turned around.

I shifted my gaze to her.

"What?" I asked softly.

"I- Well," She stopped, shook her head and took a deep breath. "There isn't anything I can really say to help right now. I know that. But standing here, imagining all the brutal things that could be to come, it seems wrong to me. We fought hard for a _reason_ didn't we? And to stand here and give up. It makes me feel like I'm giving you up. Giving up everything, our love, our life, our family, and I can't do it. So just..._know_...that I haven't given up. And if you decide that you haven't either. Well you'll know where to find me." She said, then she turned to walk in the direction our house was in.

Her words sunk in. First into my flesh, then my mind, then my bones and finally...my heart.

She was right, I was giving up. I didn't want to do that. I was being stupid. I was throwing everything to the wind because...because...

Because I was afraid.

I was so afraid to be alone. But standing here and letting them take everything from me, it was like volunteering for my worst fears. I needed to fight; once again, for all that I loved.

Bella was just about to walk past me. I reached out and grabbed her wrist. I pulled hard on it, so she spun around because of the force, and caught her, I held her tight against my chest.

I replayed my thoughts to her over and over. Showing her my reasoning, my new-found determination and also...my fear.

Bella wrapped her arms around my waist and just listened quietly.

"We'll be at home." Carlisle breathed.

I nodded and held my wife closer.

Jasper and Carlisle both departed, back to our home.

I pictured the face of everyone in my family.

Carlisle.

Esme.

Alice.

Jasper.

Emmett.

Rosalie.

Renesmee.

Bella.

I would not give them up. Not even if I was faced with the most terrible fate imaginable.

I would sacrifice everything and anything if only to stay with them all forever. I made my decision.

I would fight for them, all of them.

I would fight until I couldn't breathe, until my body was broken, until I was nothing but ash.

**Thank my playlist for all the sadness and everything in this story.**

** *sighs* you guys have no idea how hard it was to not put like a million Lord of the Rings lines in this chapter. If you like that movie as much as I do, PM me so we can talk about it ;)**

**~R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~**


	14. Chapter 14

**Hey peeps. Soooo, I'm not getting a lot of reviews on this story. Do you guys not love me? WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! No but seriously, Please review, they all mean like the world to me. Anyway, REALLY important Authors note on the bottom, please read it.  
~R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~**

With new found determination, Bella and I made our way back to the house, I had both of my arms wrapped around her, which would have made it awkward to walk if I didn't have the grace of an immortal. At random intervals I would kiss her neck or cheek or forehead.

We had spoken very little, but somehow, the few things that were said meant everything.

Our house came into view; I could smell my family inside and could hear them bustling around. They were preparing things. Not actually planning, just setting up things like maps and bags and things that we might need.

Without hesitation we walked up the steps and Bella pushed the door open. In an instant seven pairs of eyes were trained on us.

I took in the atmosphere of the room. Everyone seemed full of energy, some were full of anger or sadness, but they were all bustling around everywhere, keeping their minds and hands busy. While I took in the room, they all took in me; each one of them had a certain apprehension towards me. They weren't quite sure if I was okay or not.

I felt guilt wash over me. I remembered all the horrible things I had done and said in the last few hours.

I opened my mouth and took a deep, freesia scented breath, ready to apologize.

"I-" I began to say but was cut off by almost everyone in the room. The only ones who stayed silent were Bella and Alice. Bella had already forgiven me and Alice completely understood and showed me that in her thoughts over and over and over.

Everyone's voices trampled over the each other.

"Don't even worry about it-" Jasper said but was then cut off by Emmett.

"I get it, I would have done the same thing if I had been through what you-" who was then cut off by Esme.

"You're already forgiven."

I opened my mouth to try again, I was glad that they would all so readily forgive me, but I still felt that I should apologize, but I was interrupted again.

"Really Edward don't worry about it, It's the least of our worries now anyways." Carlisle said, I opened my mouth, trying once more to get the words out, but this time I was interrupted by Alice.

"Just give it up Edward. We already know what you're going to say, and we already forgive you, it would be a lot easier to just put it past us and move forward. We have a lot to discuss and think about right now." Alice reasoned.

I sighed in defeat, "So I don't get to apologize?" I asked.

"Nope." Alice said, annunciating the last part of the word.

I sighed again and pulled Bella closer to me, I pushed my face into her hair, trying to let her scent take away the tension in my body.

Renesmee leapt off the couch where she had been sitting on Emmett's lap.

"Daddy?" She asked. I pulled my face back a little and looked to my daughter.

"Yes Renesmee?" I replied. I could tell that my family had told her little about what was going on. I looked into her thoughts, I could see that they had told her about the Volturi coming, and a little about why that was so bad, but not much else. She didn't know about the Immortal Child we had been involved with, for that I was glad.

She seemed to think very hard about her question. A little crease formed between her eyebrows. I looked into her mind, it was swirling with questions for me. Eventually she seemed to focus on me, if I was alright, what I was going to do next, and so on. She thought about where I had been all night, then she read the tension in my face and body.

"Are you scared Daddy?" she asked finally.

I pulled away from Bella and knelt onto the floor in front of my daughter I pulled her into my arms, and she tried to put her arms around me. She was too small and her arms didn't reach very far, so she abandoned that and put her arms around my neck instead.

"Yes." I breathed.

She was silent for a moment. She seemed to contemplate why I would be, though she didn't ask that question. Then, just like her mother would have done, she started to reassure me.

"Daddy, even if things go bad you would have done a good job. You make us all happy and you're the best Daddy _ever_." She said, her voice was filled with intelligence.

I couldn't find any words to say to her, I stood up, with her still in my arms. I took her upstairs, for a nap and so we could all talk. She slept a lot, so if there was ever a need to talk about serious thing like this, we all waited for her nap. That way we would have a long time to talk to each other.

I put her down in bed and tucked her in. Her eyelids fluttered closed.

"I love you." She whispered groggily.

"I love you too, angel." I whispered, kissing her forehead. I left the room and walked back down the stairs. Everyone was in their same positions. I strode across the room to Bella and immediately pulled her close to me.

We all stood for a moment. Readying ourselves for what we knew was to come.

After a long silence Carlisle started to speak.

"Alright, let's go into the dining room. We have a lot to discuss"

After a moments hesitation we all filtered into the dining room.

Carlisle sat at the head of the table, with Esme on his right side. I sat to his left with Bella by my side. When everyone was settled into their chosen seats, Carlisle cleared his throat to begin.

"Alright, first off, I think we need to get as many details as we can. What do we know for sure?" Carlisle asked calmly, eyeing everyone sitting around the table.

"That the Volturi are coming?" Emmett added, stating the obvious, he was trying to lighten the mood. It was strange, even in the darkest of situations Emmett was trying to find some way to make it all seem okay.

Few of us chuckled sadly, while others just smiled.

"Thank you Emmett. But I was thinking more specific, we need details." Carlisle said.

"I think it would help if we all knew exactly what we were talking about first. Do you think you could show us the vision Bella?" Esme asked carefully, looking at Bella.

Bella didn't respond. She hadn't spoken to anyone but me since earlier last night. Her mind seemed to be on something else, I could tell that much.

_I don't want to see it again._ I thought towards Bella. She leaned over to me and rested her head on my shoulder, as if she was tired.

Few people gasped, and soon Emmett, Rosalie, Jasper, Carlisle and Esme's eyes went blank.

The room was silent and I directed my eyes to Bella. Her eyes were closed, deep in concentration. I kissed her forehead, she didn't respond.

My family members eyes refocused, Carlisle sighed.

"Well, let's try to weigh our options here." He said uncertainly.

A deafening silence filled the room.

"Options? I didn't know we had any." Emmett said, rolling his eyes.

"Emmett enough. Alright, forget the weighing options, how about we gather details now?" Esme suggested uncertainly, Carlisle nodded.

Silence filled the room once more.

It seemed to me we were just going to sit here all night staring at each other. But then a beautiful voice cut the silence.

"Why did we only see Caius?" Bella asked.

Carlisle, thankful for the input, nodded and got up to get an unnecessary piece of paper. It was unnecessary because we would all remember anyway.

He wrote something down on the paper. Then looked around the room.

"The area looked like the place where we play football." Alice added.

Again, Carlisle wrote it down.

This continued until we had a pretty decent list of details.

Suddenly a thought occurred to me. There had been someone missing in the vision.

"Renesmee wasn't in the vision." I stated. Bella looked up to me. She seemed to think for a moment.

"Your right." She agreed.

"Well what does that mean? She could have just been somewhere off to the side." Rosalie said.

"No, Edward and I wouldn't have let her that far away from us in a situation like that." Bella disagreed.

"Well we must have gotten her out, sent her away or something." Esme added.

"Or maybe," Alice said. "Maybe you couldn't see her. Like I cant."

That one statement crushed my hope. I had this small feeling that had made me feel somewhat better about everything, and that was the fact that my young daughter might get out of this alive.

But just as quickly as my hope was extinguished, Bella rekindled it.

"No, I have visions of her all the time." Bella said.

"Really?" Alice asked, in awe.

"How? How is that possible?" Jasper asked.

"Well, if I had to guess, I would say it's because I'm her mother. I was pregnant with her, so technically I experienced her, you didn't." Bella said, I caught a little embarrassment flicker in her eyes. It was enough to make me smile.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"One last important thing." Carlisle said, calling us all back to attention. "We need a time frame. When are they going to come?"

"From what I could see, and gather from it all, judging by the area and weather and things. I would guess that we had a little over a month and a half." Alice said thoughtfully, she looked to Bella for reassurance, she nodded.

"Alright, we're going to need to be strong through these coming months, don't fill your head with worry and doubt and sadness. We will all make it through this, I have a good feeling. We didn't really do anything wrong. Besides we are all good friends with the Volturi, I think we have a good chance." Carlisle said, dismissing us.

. . .

For the next few weeks all we did was prepare ourselves, both mentally and physically.

Mentally we all focused on protecting each other, we had all decided that if we were going down, we were going to fight.

We would wait until there was absolutely no way to talk our way out of it, and then we would fight. Most of us knew that we would never win, but still, we wouldn't just stand there and take it, we would be strong until the very end.

We had decided to get Renesmee out of the area, after Bella and I had talked, long and hard, about it, we decided that La Push was the safest place for her. We had taken her there a week before our visitors were expected.

Bella and I had dropped her off six days ago. It was one of the hardest things we had ever had to do in our lives. She had cried and begged and pleaded. But Bella and I stayed strong, we left her with Jacob and made him promise and swear to keep her safe, even if that meant he would die in the process.

He had agreed.

As soon as Bella and I were alone in the car on the way back home Bella broke down and started to cry. We had to pull over on the side of the road, I couldn't drive anymore, I started to cry as well.

I wasn't sure how long we had stayed there, but it had seemed like forever.

The day of the confrontation was tomorrow, we had new information, due to Alice and Bella having more visions.

We knew now that it wasn't just Caius that was coming, all of them were. Aro, Marcus, and Caius would all come. Along with some of the strongest members of the guard.

I think Caius expected us to go against our agreement, and he wanted to be the first to give the order to kill us, that was why we saw him first. If something did go wrong, the decision of violence was already made in his eyes. I hated that man.

We had all made ourselves very strong. We would stand united against them, and we knew that in our hearts we might not be victorious, but we would always be together.

**Sorry for the crap chapter, I'm having a really hard time with life right now, the next chapter will be a lot better, the Volturi will be there and I have a lot of stuff planned.**

**DONT SKIP THIS!!!**  
**Okay so I wanted to start a new story, but I have a ton of ideas for stories and I don't know which one to do. I would hope to do them all eventually, but I don't want to do the all at the same time. So could you guys vote for one of them and the one that gets the most votes is the one I'll start? These aren't the real summaries just stuff I'm making up on the spot to give you a short synopsis. **  
**1.** Bella is apart of the Volturi, grudgingly, and Edward comes and joins, because he is trying to find his place in life and they fall in love.  
**2.** Lord of the rings mixed with Twilight. (Personally I think this would be AWESOME lol, but maybe I'm a little biased.)  
**3. **Bella is a lonely vampire with a dark past that wanders the world. The Cullens get into a fight with James' coven, they are about to lose and Bella comes and helps them, They want her to stay with them because they find her interesting and are grateful, Edward and Bella fall in love.  
**4. **All Human story where Bella and Edward are living together and a whole bunch of shenanigans goes on. (Lol I love that word. No but like I was thinking Bella witnesses a murder and then a bunch of bad stuff happens because of that. I thought of it because I watched a CSI marathon and then I was reading those books and I had a weird dream. : P)

**PLEASE VOTE FOR ONE!!!**

**~R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~**


	15. Chapter 15

**Thanks for all the reviews and votes. I'm going to keep the poll going for a while. So please vote if you haven't already. If you want more info about them ask and I could give you a better summary.**  
**1.** Bella is apart of the Volturi, grudgingly, and Edward comes and joins, because he is trying to find his place in life and they fall in love.  
**2.** Lord of the rings mixed with Twilight. (Personally I think this would be AWESOME lol, but maybe I'm a little biased.)  
**3. **Bella is a lonely vampire with a dark past that wanders the world. The Cullen's get into a fight with James' coven, they are about to lose and Bella comes and helps them, They want her to stay with them because they find her interesting and are grateful, Edward and Bella fall in love.  
**4. **All Human story where Bella and Edward are living together and a whole bunch of shenanigans goes on. (Lol I love that word. No but like I was thinking Bella witnesses a murder and then a bunch of bad stuff happens because of that. I thought of it because I watched a CSI marathon and then I was reading those books and I had a weird dream. : P)

**PLEASE VOTE FOR ONE!!!**

**~R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~**

Dawn broke across the eastern horizon, and as the sun rose, so did our tension.

We had all been stretched thin with stress, but did not give in to sadness. We stayed strong, for each other, but we were, understandably, always on edge.

Bella and I were never more than an arm's reach away from each other. We had never spoken about what would happen if we were to die, that wasn't an option to us. We wouldn't leave Renesmee without a mother and father. We wouldn't leave our family behind. And most importantly, we wouldn't leave _each other_ behind.

The Volturi were to arrive in an hour's time. We left our house in silence. A stray thought danced across my mind. _Would this be the last time I would see this house?_

I quickly tried to banish the thought from my mind, though when I heard Bella sigh almost silently I knew she had already caught it.

I looked to her with apology in my eyes, she kissed my neck in forgiveness and we kept walking.

The whole family, minus my daughter, walked at a leisurely pace and spaced out from each other.

Carlisle and Esme strolled about 15 yards ahead of Bella and I, Emmett and Rosalie were around 15 feet to the left of us, and Alice and Jasper were about 25 feet in the opposite direction.

Bella and I hung back behind the rest of the couples, we could faintly hear them whispering things to one another, but we tried to ignore them. Bella and I didn't say anything to each other; instead we just stared into each other's eyes.

I tried to memorize every little detail on her perfect face, though I already knew hers better than I knew my own. I took in every different shade of her eyes, their deep emotion filled colors. Then I moved to her nose, I memorized every curve of it. Then moved onto her perfect full lips, my eyes roamed all over her beautiful face.

Instead of filling my mind with dread and worry, thinking about what would happen now. I filled my mind with memories; The first time I saw her eyes, as a human, the first time I had kissed her, the very first time she had told me she loved me, even though she was unconscious at the time I tried to remember how every nerve and muscle and bone in my body had exploded with undeniable love, but also frustration. I remembered how hard it had been to decide what to do about our love; I made many mistakes looking for that answer. First I had tried to ignore her. I had failed at that, miserably I might add. Then I had let our love blossom, and later crushed it by leaving. I winced as I remembered the pain of our separation. But then smiled when I remembered how it had felt when we were reunited.

I remembered every moment of my life, though it seemed the only memories that I could actually focus on were the ones with Bella. I had had no life without her, I was an empty shell. I was alive, technically, but I didn't really have a soul, Bella had given me that. And so many other things.

A change in the lighting brought me out of my memories. We had stepped out from under the canopy of the trees and into the open clearing where we would meet the Volturi. I looked away from Bella for just a moment and took in the space, it was very different from the Rainier field, it was a lot less lush, and there were fewer memories here. We hadn't really lived here long enough to make as many memories as we did in Forks.

My family stood on the Western edge of the field, where we had been standing in the vision. They each looked up for a moment when Bella and I emerged from the trees, but then looked away to give us some privacy.

I looked back to Bella, she had her head leaned against my chest with her eyes closed, a peaceful expression on her face.

I gently ran my fingertips over her cheek, her eyes opened slowly in response. They were filled with an emotion I couldn't quite place. She caught my hand with her own and held it against her face. Then she pulled it away and kissed each of my fingertips, then each of my knuckles, softly.

I leaned down slowly and pressed my lips gently, lovingly, against hers. I poured every emotion I had ever felt towards her into that kiss. She responded just as gently, but just as passionately.

We pulled away when we reached my family, but still looked deeply into each other's eyes. I knew that whatever was to happen now, whatever whirlwind our lives were about to face, those eyes would always get me through the storm.

We stopped walking, but stayed silent. Everyone in the family looked at their mate. Then Alice looked away from Jasper and stared at Bella, who was on her right. She stepped away from Jasper a moment later and pulled Bella from my arms and into hers.

Esme then stepped away from Carlisle and hugged Rosalie, next Carlisle hugged Emmett, then Jasper came toward me and we hugged.

We all went in a big circuit, hugging each member of our family, but never saying a word.

Bella was finally returned to my arms, and I held onto her for dear life. I didn't let sadness enter my mind, only love, gratefulness, and determination.

After a moment, we all pulled away slightly from each other, and got into a line. They would be here in mere minutes.

In turn everyone dropped their arms from around their mates, but kept their hands. We would appear stronger this way. We had gone over many battle tactics in the past weeks; a large part of fighting was mental, and visual.

A deafening silence filled the morning air, I could hear birds chirping far off in the distance, the quiet _tapping _of ants walking around on the forest floor, and on tree trunks. I realized that everyone in my family was straining to hear something. Listening for the quiet _thumping_ of another immortal family running through the thick trees.

For a few minutes, there was nothing to be heard. Then Bella's head turned to the east, we all looked where she did. She could already hear their thoughts, I was sure of that. She had a longer range than I did. But, after a few more moments, I heard what my beloved was hearing.

_About a mile away now. Hmm, it seems they know we are on our way. They even came out to greet us. _I recognized that voice. It was Demetri. He was leading the rest of them to us. I gathered all the information I could from his thoughts. Its seems that they brought more people than we had anticipated. Their company included; Jane, Alec, Demetri, Felix, Chelsea, Renata, Aro, Caius, and Marcus, but also a few others that I didn't know from the last time I had had the bad luck to see them.

We were outnumbered, but only by a few. They had the upper hand, in skill and numbers, but that still didn't matter to me.

I caught sight of Demetri's milky eyes for just a moment before he sank back and disappeared into the trees again. He would let the Leaders come out first.

They skulked through the trees, even as a vampire it was hard to distinguish their cloaks from the blackness of the underbrush. I took a deep breath, and got myself into character, we had a few plans to make it through this, I hoped to whatever God there was that at least one of them worked out.

Without breaking stride they emerged from the forest. Aro lifted his head first, and smiled in greeting. He pulled his long hood back over his head and let it fall, Caius and Marcus followed suit but the guard members kept their faces hidden.

"Carlisle, my old friend." Aro called, with a happy sigh. They came forward; it was time to start plan A.

Carlisle stepped forward, out of our group, I heard the shout of protest in Esme's mind, but I didn't look at her to see the terrified expression that must have shown in her eyes. I didn't tear my eyes away from Caius for one second. I had seen his look of disappointment when he'd first seen Bella. If things were to turn bad I would go for him first.

"Aro, it is very good to see you. It's been so long." Carlisle greeted warmly, but I could hear the concealed disdain in his voice. When they met they were roughly 15 yards ahead of us.

"Centuries." Aro agreed. Then turned his gaze on me, he seemed to study me. "Young Edward," He greeted. "When last we met you seemed rather dejected, I'm glad to see your spirits have been lifted." Aro observed.

"Considerably." I agreed, tightening my grip on Bella's hand.

He smiled at me, I didn't return it. Then his gaze wandered to Bella. I didn't like the feeling I got when he looked at her. His filthy, cruel eyes should never be allowed to gaze at my Bella.

His smiled widened. "Well, it appears you have kept your promise. Ah, you liked my gift?" He asked. I was confused for a moment, I looked to Bella, she had worn the pendant he had given her on our wedding. Though I could tell she wore it with disdain.

Her hand rose and she caressed the jewel with her graceful fingers while she spoke, "Yes, It's lovely, and very generous of you. Thank you, though I should have sent a note."

Aro laughed merrily at her nervous politeness, and waved a hand to show her that was not necessary.

"I'm very glad to see that our presence here turned out to be unnecessary, it would have been a shame to have to...exterminate, one such as you." Aro said whimsically, I clenched my teeth and tried to breathe normally. Bella squeezed my hand in comfort.

"My apologies Edward, I didn't mean to offend." He said to me. I smiled in fake apology, but didn't speak or unclench my jaw.

"I would love to stay and chat but I'm afraid we have much to be doing. I would like to hear, or see I suppose I should say, the details?" He asked. What he meant was, he wanted to look into someone's memories to see what had happened. Now came the tough part of plan A.

"Of course. I changed her, so you may look into my memories." Carlisle lied. Aro came forward and held out his hand. My father reached his hand out and touched his palm against Aro's. I dropped Bella's hand.

Both of their heads bowed, and Bella's eyes closed. What she was trying to do was replace Carlisle's memories, she was projecting thoughts and images that she had created in her own mind to Carlisle, and hopefully Aro.

It was difficult to project this much at once, and to more than one mind, so Bella needed to give it her undivided attention.

Our family stood and waited, with baited breaths, as Aro took Carlisle's forged memories. I would have done this, but it was easier with Carlisle, he'd had less experiences and memories of what really happened than I did, it was easier to forge a memory, than it was to replace one.

After an eternity, Aro's eyes opened, he looked around for a moment, then dropped Carlisle's hand. He smiled, and his thoughts replayed what he had just seen.

"Interesting memories you have Carlisle," He said thoughtfully, I heard something in his voice that sounded strange to me. Suspicion?

"Though, would you care to tell me why they are fake?"

Damn it. Those two words echoed through the thoughts of my entire family.

"Fake? What gives you that idea my old friend?" Carlisle said, trying to play dumb, but I knew from Aro's thoughts that that wasn't going to help.

Aro smiled knowingly, "If those memories are not yours, then whose are they?" He asked, eyeing everyone.

"Not mine? What do you mea-"Carlisle started to say but was then cut off by Caius,

"If my brother claims your memories to be forged then they are. Do not try to fool us with your silly trickery, what is it your trying to hide from us?" He snapped harshly. Aro held his hand out in warning.

"I'm saddened to hear that you would try to fool us dear Cullen's. Did you not think I would find out about this? I have used my gift for many millennia I know when a mind is being manipulated under my touch. Now, why would you do such a thing?" He asked again. Nobody answered; I retook Bella's hand, so that I could move her away quickly just in case someone tried to hurt her.

"Well," Aro sighed, "I know that no mind reader could have done this, nor a fortune teller, or an empath. I can only assume that this is Isabella's doing."

He stalked forward towards us, and my muscles tensed. He noticed but didn't stop. His cloak billowed around him with each step.

He came to a stop right in front of Bella. It was all I could do not to reach out and push him away, he was so close to her, and I didn't like that at all.

"Dear Bella, why have you tried to deceive me?" He whispered to her, he raised his palm slowly and swept it across her face. I couldn't help the quiet growl that came from my chest. The guards all tensed, but Aro ignored me and continued to stare at Bella with hurt in his eyes.

"I didn't." Bella said, there was nothing she could say at this point.

"Oh?" Aro asked sarcastically.

His movement was so quick that I didn't have the chance to see it or stop it from happening.

In an instant I was torn away from Bella's side, Aro's hand was around my neck and my back was against a smashed tree.

Bella hadn't even gasped when he did this, I know I did, a lot of my family was shouting at this point, but Bella didn't move. She must have known this was coming, why didn't she tell me?

I didn't have the time to remove his hands from my skin; he had already seen all that he needed to be able to kill us.

He leaped away from me and back to his own side, around his kin.

My family all looked to me. I was fine, just a little surprised, I had never seen one of the elders move so quickly, not even in someone's memories, he didn't even think about it in his mind before he struck.

I got up to and went back to Bella again.

_I'm sorry; I saw it only a minute before, and if I stopped it something worse would have happened. _Bella told me in my mind. I nodded; she then showed me what would have happened if she had done something. He would have instantly snapped her neck if she had tried to stop him. And if she had just come out and told him about everything, he would have snapped my neck first then hers.

I shuddered. Aro opened his mouth and spoke to us with a disgusted expression.

"An Immortal Child and a hybrid? You thought you could hide such a thing from me?"

"We did not create the Immortal Child and Renesmee is not dangerous. We taught her to drink animal blood and she is very intelligent, she will not jeopardize our secret." Carlisle spoke calmly.

"Perhaps I should speak to someone more _central_ to this story. Isabella seems to be a common factor in both of these occurrences. Come, step forward." He beckoned. Every muscle in my body screamed in protest, I would not allow Bella to be that far away from me at a time like this.

Bella hesitated, she was nervous, I could feel it radiating off her.

"Did you not hear me? Come forward! Speak!" Aro yelled impatiently, I glared at him. Bella took a hesitant step, I pulled her back. These people would kill her if she said one wrong word, and if they did decide to kill her I might not be able to stop them, was she insane? She looked at me with confused eyes; I shook my head silently begging her not to go.

_Edward, you have to let her go. If we don't do as they say things could turn ugly. _Carlisle said, but I didn't want to listen.

I held fast, and didn't let her go, I could hear Aro's impatience turning to anger, but I didn't care, I wouldn't let her go.

_Edward don't do this, we have a chance if I can convince him. I'll be okay I swear. _My angel called to me, but I still couldn't release her, I could hear everyone in my family telling me to let her go, I could hear the Volturi getting impatient and angry, but I wouldn't let her go.

_Don't make me do this Edward._ Bella said in a warning voice, I looked at her with confusion.

"Isabella. Come forward. Edward release her." Aro said in an agitated tone.

_Let go Edward, or I'll do it. _I had no idea what Bella was talking about, but I wasn't going to let go. I saw her eyes harden for a moment, there was a crackling noise then something shot up my arm, it was very painful, I yanked my hand away from it. And Bella walked away.

It took me a second to understand what had just happened. She had used her gift to electrocute me, I took a step forward.

"Isabella _only_." Aro said, I saw some of the guard tense as if they were about to leap forward. I had no choice but to stop now, if I continued they would jut restrain me.

Bella stopped a few feet away from them, and held very still.

"Explain." Caius demanded.

"Well-" Bella began but was then interrupted by Aro.

"Actually, I saw in Edwards memories that you can show me your past now, I would very much like to see it."

Bella nodded and held her hand out. Aro smiled, though it looked slightly cruel to my eyes, and stepped toward her. All my muscles tensed as he closed the space between them.

Slowly, he reached his hand toward hers. Even though she had held her palm out for him to take openly, he shot his hand out very quickly and grabbed her wrist roughly.

Bella's eyes stayed open, but Aro closed his eyes and bowed his head. Through his mind I saw all of Bella's memories, but there was something different about them. She was skipping time in between; she was deciding what to show him. She showed him our wedding, but only brief bits of it, our honeymoon, but only when she found out she was pregnant, then she showed him what her pregnancy had been like. Next, she showed him when Renesmee had been born, both Aro and I winced when we felt the pain she had gone through, and then her transformation and the burning pain- wait, what? She _had_ felt the transformation? She lied to me. I tried to push that thought aside; I would ask her about it later.

She continued to show him everything, from Renesmee, emphasizing how strong and intelligent she was, then she showed him the Immortal Child story. I was silent as I watched all of her memories.

Aro pulled his hand back slowly, and raised his head. His eyes opened, "I see you are skipping some memories, but the one's I do see I believe to be true."

"Yes." Bella answered.

"I shall speak to my brothers now," Aro said, turning around. Slowly Bella backed away, then turned and walked back toward me. As soon as she was in arms reach I pulled her to me. She didn't resist, but we didn't speak either.

She kept apologizing to me in her head; I shook my head and tried to make her see that I understood.

For all the time they counselled, I stood with Bella.

Finally they broke apart, and all of our attention was brought to them.

"We have gotten all the information we needed from Isabella." Caius began.

"We shall vote now." Aro continued.

Aro looked to Caius and nodded, all of our eyes went to him.

"The fact that the Cullen's had contact with the Immortal Child for weeks and did nothing, along with the fact that we do not know how the hybrid will develop leads me to think that this situation deserves...Justice." Caius said, predictably.

Aro nodded again and turned his eyes to Marcus.

"The Cullen's destroyed the Immortal Child, and I do not think the hybrid will be a threat to us. I think we should leave them in peace." He said in his light, wispy voice.

Aro sighed, making a show of his decision.

"I'm afraid," he started, my heart sank. "I must agree with...Caius."

If I could have thrown up I would have. _No_, we weren't going to make it out of this? I stared at Bella while everything melted away. The trees and our enemies and the rest of the family seemed to disintegrate, until all that was left was Bella and I.

I could vaguely hear Carlisle begging them to reconsider, but I knew they wouldn't. I pulled myself back to reality and sighed. We would have to fight now.

"Actually," Aro began, my eyes snapped to him. "I would like to talk to Bella again for a moment."

Bella looked at him blankly.

"Privately." He added, eyeing me.

I felt his vile thoughts melt away into silence; I turned my eyes back to Bella, seeing if I could read his thoughts through her eyes.

Silence filled the clearing as they spoke silently. I tried to catch the emotions flittering across Bella's face, but it was difficult. Understanding seemed to at last dawn across her face, then sadness and fear. She looked away from him, and seemed to think very hard.

"Well?" Aro asked with a sly smile.

Bella hesitated before asking. "How long?"

How long? What were they talking about? I tried to understand but couldn't.

"One hundred." Was his reply.

Bella shook her head rapidly.

"Five." She bargained. I wanted to know what they were bargaining for, what was the price for what he was offering?

"Fifty."

"Ten."

"Twenty Five. No less." He said. Bella looked around at everyone in the family, and then lastly at me, I knew my expression was one of confusion.

"Okay." She whispered, without looking at him.

He smiled. "Thank you very much Bella, you know what you must do. Goodbye Cullen's." He said unexpectedly, and then turned to walk away. Everyone in the guard looked confused, as did Marcus and Caius. He beckoned them forward, with one last longing look at us and a confused look at Aro they all obeyed, they didn't really have a choice, Aro was the head Master, if they disobeyed he would kill them. One by one they left, and soon they all vanished through the trees.

As soon as they were out of hearing range everyone started to interrogate Bella.

"What deal did you make with him? What just happened? Why did you do that?" Everyone kept asking.

Bella didn't answer; she just continued to look at me, with sadness deep in her eyes.

"Everyone stop. Stop!" Carlisle yelled. Silence filled the clearing. "Let's go home first and then we can discuss what just happened."

Everyone nodded and then turned to walk back towards the house. Bella didn't move, so neither did I. Carlisle gave us a last fleeting glance and then left.

Bella just stared.

"What?" I asked gently.

"I'm sorry." She replied, finally looking away.

"Why? What are you sorry for?" I asked.

"Everything." She answered. "I lied to you about things before and now you know that I did. And right now, because of the deal I just made, I'm going to hurt you. But know that I don't want to. It's just...the way it has to be right now." She explained sadly.

"Don't say that Bella. I understand, and I trust you. Whatever just happened we'll get through it. Together. Come on. Let's get back to the house and talk about this." I said.

She closed her eyes and didn't respond, but after a moment she took a step. I stepped with her and we started to saunter back to our house.

_What's going to happen now? _I wondered to myself, but I didn't care what was going to come now, as long as I had Bella at my side.

**Sorry this one took so long, I tried to make it really good, but I don't know if I did that.... **

**Anyway next chapter is going to be really sad, just so you know. **

**~R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~**


	16. Chapter 16

**Hi peeps. I'm really sorry my updates have started taking so long. I'm trying really hard to make this story really good, and plus there's a lot of weird things going on in my life right now. So please keep reading and bear with me. And keep reviewing. I only got 2 last chapter. (*insert sad face*)**

**~R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~**

Our house finally came back into view; I couldn't help but smile and let out a relieved sigh even though I was still incredibly tense and nervous to find out what Bella had traded.

I had lived in many houses in my existence, and it wasn't like this one held any particular meaning to me, but the fact that my earlier worries of never seeing it again didn't come to pass put me at ease, if only slightly.

Bella and I walked up the steps, and opened the door. Everyone was situated in different places around the living room, but they all looked up when we entered and stared, not at me, but at Bella. My smile disappeared. It was time to return to business yet again.

For the last three weeks everyone has been completely tensed up, would we never get a break?

I turned to look Bella as well and she had an adorable crease on her forehead, probably from embarrassment, that I wanted to kiss away.

A few of my family members opened their mouths to start interrogating Bella again, but before the words could come out Carlisle cleared his throat loudly.

All eyes went to him, he made a sweeping motion with his hand, ushering us all into the dining room. It seemed to me that we had been spending an awful lot of time in there.

We all took our designated seats (mine beside Bella of course) and prepared to begin the discussion.

Emmett had a very focused look on his face; he was going through a mental checklist of things that Bella could have traded.

_Forks? Maybe we can't go to Forks for twenty-five years? What about...uh....BEARS?! We can't have bear blood for twenty-five years? I swear if that's what she traded I'm going to be _so_ pissed._

I rolled my eyes at him.

"Emmett I hardly think that our diet _really_ matters to them." I said in annoyance. He looked back at me with an innocent expression and raised eyebrows.

"Hey, I'm just covering all our bases brother." He defended. I couldn't help but roll my eyes again; he could be so ridiculous sometimes.

"Alright, let's talk about what happened." Carlisle intervened. I felt Bella put her hand over mine; I turned my palm up and intertwined our fingers.

"What did he say to you Bella?" Carlisle whispered softly, his eyes and thoughts looked sad, and that made me nervous.

"He...said...he said that...that-" She stuttered, I scooted my chair closer to hers so I could put my arm around her, she hesitated but then leaned into me.

"It's alright dear, let's just start slowly." Esme soothed, she always knew how to calm one of us down, or how to defuse a situation.

Bella nodded in response, and Esme continued. "Why don't we forget about what your side of the deal was? Instead, why don't you tell us what he offered you?"

"He said he would leave you all alone, and forget about what happened, with Renesmee and the Immortal Child." She breathed; I didn't fail to notice that she didn't seem very happy about that. I thought over her words while everyone absorbed what she had just said. Then it hit me, the loop in her words. She hadn't included herself in that statement; _He would leave _you _all alone._

I straightened back up and looked at her in the eye; she was refusing to look at me. Her statement seemed to have reassured everyone, they didn't notice her choice of words, didn't understand the significance.

My muscle locked down for what I knew, subconsciously, was to come.

"Alright, that's great. Now Bella, what did you trade for that?" Carlisle asked with the ghost of a smile his face.

"I said I would..." she looked to me, finally, there were tears brimming her eyes.

Everyone's thoughts were impatient, buzzing around my head like a nest of hornets, but all I could focus on was my wife. Then I heard her thoughts enter my mind, for only a moment, but what I heard was enough to crush my entire soul, heart, mind, and body.

_I said I would join them._

I stared at her for a moment, pure disbelief on my face.

"No, you didn't." I finally said, the calmness of my voice surprised even me.

She nodded and looked away.

"No, you didn't." I said again, though a little less tranquil.

"I'm sorry Edward." She whispered, I was instantly furious. Now, she apologizes? What the hell does it mean now?

I pushed away from the table violently, Esme gasped.

"You didn't! Bella you didn't, you're lying to me!" I said, my voice was breaking.

She didn't respond, she only put her head into her hands and shook with silent sobs. I heard Alice gasp as she saw what would happen now.

"Why? Why would you- didn't you even thin- cant you-" I couldn't finish a single sentence, my mind was spinning too fast.

"It was the only way Edward." She said.

"The only way?! No that's not the _only way_. The only way is _you_ and _me_, you _being_ with me. That's what we said this whole time, that it was _you and me_. That's what you said to me this _whole time_ and now you're just going to-" I stopped, I knew that if I kept going I would say something I didn't mean and this whole thing would just get worse.

"No," I continued, calm again. "That's not going to happen, we'll just find another way to- we'll find another way out of this." My emotions kept going back and forth, first I was confused, then in denial, then furious, and now I was back to denial again.

Bella looked at me and her eyes told me what I already knew. This was our only option now, either this or death.

"Bella don't. Don't!" I yelled again. "Don't go, please. Please!" I begged.

Most of the family had caught the gist of what was going on, I could see Alice sobbing on Jasper's shoulder, Carlisle had his head in his hands, but the rest of them were still mostly in the dark.

"I'm sorry Edward." My wife said again.

"What the hell does '_Sorry Edward'_ mean now? I don't care if you're sorry, I only care that you're with _me_!" I exploded, I knew how selfish I sounded, and I knew how hard this must be for her, but she was my everything, and she was going to leave me. Everything I had said to reassure myself was not going to happen. The only thing that had kept me going turned out to be a total lie.

As I finally realized that Bella was going to _have _to leave, and we _were_ going to be apart, and there was _nothing_ I could do about it, I couldn't handle it. I was helpless, and I _hated_ be helpless.

I darted across the room and pulled down a maple china cabinet, all the plates and cups and things made a satisfying loud _crash _against the hard floors. Then I punched a hole through the wall, but hearing it crunch and watching it crumble once was not enough to satisfy my rage, I continued to throw my fist through it over and over.

Eventually, I heard Esme stand and I heard her yelling at me to stop. I froze, and my knees felt weak. I threw my fist through the wall one last time before crumpling to the floor. I couldn't stop myself from coughing and choking over sobs.

I was so frustrated, I was cornered. If I listened to what Bella said, and I went along with what she was doing, it was going to hurt like hell. And if I didn't listen, and I held her back here with me, we would die.

My frustration boiled, along with my sadness, anger, and helplessness, and it turned into a scream of pure emotion. It came from deep inside me, guttural and full of despair.

It ended with a sob, and I closed my eyes and continued to cry. I heard how pathetic I was being. I should have been comforting my wife or talking to her or doing something, but instead I opted for breaking down completely.

I knew why I reacted this way. I just knew that I shouldn't be. I'd felt this pain before, and I'd promise myself that I would never have to feel it again. And yet here I was.

It seemed that nothing I ever did worked. I tried everything; it just seemed that someone, somewhere, didn't want us to be happy. Is this how things would always be with us? We would get a small taste of happiness, and then we would have to give it back right away? It was so unfair.

I continued to cry and sob along with the rest of my family. But then, I heard someone get up. They came across the room, over to me. Then they put their arms around me.

I instantly recognized the embrace of my wife.

I pulled her to me instantly, though my limbs and movements were clumsy. Her tiny frame shook with sobs, and she apologized through her tears over and over.

"No," I choked out. "I'm going too."

She shook her head.

"Renesmee." Was all she said.

She didn't want me to leave Renesmee without both of her parents. I knew that too, but I didn't want her to go, she would be alone. And what would happen if she got hurt? Sure it wouldn't be fair to have Renesmee separated from her parents. But would it be fair to have her lose her mother _irreversibly_?

"I won't." Bella said. What she meant was that she wouldn't get hurt, she wouldn't die. But how did she know that?

"Please Edward. I know this really sucks right now, but we can make it. We can get through, I swear."

"I swear to God Bella. I don't know how. How do I do it? Without you." I whispered.

She leaned back to look at me. She cupped her elegant hands onto my face and I did the same to her after a moment, both of us pleading to each other with our eyes.

"You do know. I know it's going to hurt, being apart. But it's only for a little while. We'll make it. As we always have. Just go through each day one at a time. Don't think of what I'm doing, or where I am, just think of how much I love you. And how good it's going to be when I come back." She soothed. I let her words soak in and reassure me. I let them change my mind as I knew only she could do. She was going to _have_ to go and she was going to think of me when she was away. I wouldn't let her think of me like this. Breaking down and sad, I would be strong for her, as she would for me.

"And you... you think of me. Think of how much I love you, and how much Renesmee loves you. And how much everyone loves you. And how we're going to make it through." I reassured right back.

I knew I had no choice but to trust her now. That was the only thing I could do at this point. She was right. We _would_ make it. She _would_ not get hurt or killed. And we _would_ all be together after this. This _would_ be okay.

**Not the best chapter ever I know. Sorry about that.**

**~R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~**


	17. Chapter 17

***dodges pitch forks, frying pans, spears, and swords.* I am so sorry for not updating in so long. I never planned for my absence to be this long. I really hope you guys can all forgive me.**

**If you're wondering, they are all still living in the same house. Nothing has changed, except the fact that Bella is gone. Oh, and they are all out of school now. It kind of got really tedious to have them keep going to school and stuff.**

**Also, sorry for the bit of a time lapse, But actually going through the whole thing of Bella leaving just made it a little **_**TOO **_**melodramatic and depressing.**

**~R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~**

37 days, 23 hours, 43 minutes, 23 seconds.

37 days, 23 hours, 43 minutes, 25 seconds.

37 days, 23 hours, 43 minutes, 28 seconds.

I sighed and turned over on my bed.

_My_ bed. Not _ours_.

Not for another 25 years.

My hands clenched into fists and I pushed them into my eyes, and started to breathe raggedly. I lay silent for a few moments, trying to control my wild emotions.

Finally, I let my hands fall and looked out the window. Darkness. The stars were shining, but to me they seemed veiled. Everything seemed that way to me now. Everything and everyone was present, but not as beautiful as they had been before.

It was strange how one person could change my world so damn much.

So yes, in essence everything and everyone was present, except the one that mattered most.

37 days, 23 hours, 56 minutes, 48 seconds.

During the day I tried to keep myself strong for my daughter and family, but I knew they looked through my facade and saw right into the pain in my eyes.

During the night, I kept to the same routine. I would put Renesmee to bed, go back to my room, shut off all the lights and lay in my bed, keeping track of how long we had been apart.

37 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes, 17 seconds.

I felt ashamed of myself, plastering a fake smile on my face by day, and hiding alone in my room torturing myself with my thoughts and counting the minutes by night. I had never felt like more of a vampire.

38 days, 0 hours, 1 minute, 8 seconds.

. . .

"Daddy?" Renesmee whispered.

"Hmm?" I responded.

"I love you." She said. Lately my daughter had been the only one I could bear to talk to. She gave me peace, just like her mother. But it was a heavy burden to her, having to take care of me, be her mother for me, so I tried to distance my real thoughts from her.

"Love you too." I replied. Her eyelids fluttered closed. I stood by her bed, waiting for her to fall asleep.

After a moment her eyes opened again.

"Do you think...-" Renesmee started, but stopped.

"Do I think what?" I asked gently.

"Do you think mommy knows I love her?"

My body tensed at her words. I sat silent for a few moments, letting her words sink in.

I sighed and knelt down beside her bed. I swept my fingers across her cheek.

"Of course she knows. And she loves you too. So much. You have no idea how much I'm sure she wants to be able to say that to you herself." I replied.

Renesmee thought about my words for a moment. They seemed to please her, so after a few more moments she closed her eyes and fell asleep thinking about her mother.

I stood and exited her room, closing the door behind myself.

I sighed again and readied myself for another night.

I opened the door to my room, immediately my eyes flickered to the clock.

9:24

I did the math in my head.

42 days, 21 hours, 24 minutes, 34 seconds.

I made my way over to my bed to continue with my nightly schedule, but stopped when I noticed something that should not have been there.

Alice.

She was perched in the middle of my bed, sitting cross-legged and looking straight at me with a serious expression on her face.

"Hello Edward." She said quietly.

"Alice." I said, and then I smiled at her. Completely fake and meaningless.

Alice sighed and looked to the ground.

"You don't have to smile for me Edward." She breathed. I felt the fake smile slowly dissolve from my face.

She didn't say anything more for a long while. Her thoughts only seemed to swirl, nothing coherent.

"What do you want?" I whispered after a 15 silent minutes had passed.

_You._ Her thoughts immediately answered.

I closed my eyes and sighed.

"I'm right here." I answered.

"No you're not. Not really." She whispered. I didn't want to have this argument again.

"Alice-" I started, but she interrupted me.

"I'm not going to argue, I just came up here to talk."

"Talk about what?" I asked.

"Anything?"

"There's nothing to talk about Alice." I responded, I knew damn well what she wanted to talk about and I wasn't having it.

"Then talk to me about nothing." She replied.

I sighed and looked out the window.

"I don't want to talk."

"I know." She said. "But you're going to have to eventually."

I didn't respond so she took a deep breath and continued.

"I actually came up here to give you something." I looked back to her. "I thought while I was here I might try to get you to talk to me, but I guess that plan failed huh?" She asked, though she knew long before she came up here that her "plan" would fail.

She sighed and picked up a thick envelope that was sitting at her side that I had failed to notice. She held it out to me.

"I don't know who sent it, but it has your name on it. Someone left it on our front porch this morning."

I reached out and took the envelope. Then I furrowed my brows in confusion.

"You've had it since this morning and you're just giving it to me now?" I asked.

She smiled sadly. "You always seem to be in a daze during the day. You seem more alive at night, or at least that's what I've seen."

My eyes widened in shock. I was surprised at first. Then I just felt guilty and stupid. I pinched the bridge of my nose. Of course she had seen me. I was a fool to think I could have hidden it from her.

"You don't have to say anything." She said. I let my arm fall and looked back at her. "But I want you to open it. I'm curious as to what it is and who it's from." She said with a dull excitement. Usually her enthusiasm always made me laugh or smile, but my lips just barely twitched now.

I looked at the thick envelope in my hand. Sure enough across the front was my name on a tab. It seemed to have been typed on a computer and printed onto a label.

I retreated to one of the couches and stared at it for a moment. Then I looked back to Alice.

She was now leaning far over on my bed, trying to see what I was doing. Her eyes looked expectant, and she gave me a look that clearly said 'Just get on with it already'.

I sighed and rolled my eyes, and turned back to the envelope. In a swift motion I tore it open. Inside there was a smaller letter sized envelope, and a little package.

I took the letter out first; there was no address or name on the envelope. It was strictly blank.

I opened it too, and inside was a single sheet of paper, folded and pressed neatly. The paper was thick and heavy and appeared to be very expensive.

Slowly I unfolded it, and read the first three words before I dropped it and brought my knees up to my chest.

Those three words that I read caused an explosion of pain to tear through me, and I couldn't bear it.

Alice jumped off the bed and rushed toward me. She kneeled down in front of me and tried to take my hand, but I didn't let her.

"Edward?" She asked. She looked at me in confusion for a moment. Then her hand reached down to take the piece of paper I had dropped.

I reached out and grabbed her wrist. "Don't touch it!" I yelled. She looked at me, startled by my reaction, but listened to me nonetheless.

Upon hearing my angry outburst the rest of my family came rushing up the stairs.

My door burst open, and everyone looked at me and Alice. They took in the scene, then Jasper lurched forward and wretched my hand off of Alice's wrist.

He looked angry. I didn't really blame him, but he didn't understand. I had to be the one to read that letter first. It was imperative.

I never took my eyes off of Alice. I saw my face through her mind. My eyes looked wild and desperate, very different from the blank pain she was becoming used to seeing in them.

I stared pleadingly into her eyes, trying to convey a message.

I needed to be alone and read that letter. I needed her to understand.

She stared back at me, confused, and tried to decipher my expression.

"What the hell do you think you're doing Edward?" Jasper asked angrily. I didn't respond I just stared at Alice.

"Edward?" Jasper asked again, though with more anger this time.

"No Jazz." Alice said. It seemed she got my message, though she didn't understand the reason for it.

Alice stood and stepped away from me.

"Everyone, we have to leave Edward alone now." She said matter-of-factly. The room was silent for 36 seconds before someone spoke.

"Alice? What are you talking about?" Jasper asked completely baffled.

"He has something he needs to do right now, and I interrupted him. Come on, everyone go downstairs and we'll talk and explain this whole thing once he has finished." She said, leaving the room.

I through Alice a grateful look, she smiled lightly and left the room, leaving me with one message.

_Come downstairs when you're done with whatever is on that letter._

The rest of my family looked at me with confused faces, but left the room after Alice. Jasper was the last to leave, with one more confused look at me he closed the door and retreated downstairs.

I slowly lifted the letter again, but didn't look at it. I had to ready myself first. I sat for a long time, just breathing deeply and preparing myself.

I looked at the clock again.

42 days, 21 hours, 47 minutes, 13 seconds.

I sighed, and then held my breath. I looked at the writing on the page once more and took in my wife's handwriting.

_My dearest Edward, _

I re-read that one line many times. When I had first read them and recognized Bella's writing it had seemed to be too much to handle. I was trying to hide away my pain and seeing her writing just made all of my emotions go crazy. Everything I had been trying so hard to keep buried down deep inside came rushing to the surface with those three words. _My dearest Edward._

I released my breath once I had readied myself enough to continue reading the letter.

_My dearest Edward,_

_You have no idea how much I miss you. How much I miss everyone. How much I wish I could do more than write you a silly letter. But right now that is all I can do, write you a stupid letter. But I guess it will have to suffice for now. _

_This is kind of strange I feel like I should be telling you about the weather or something. (It's windy, in case you really wanted to know.) I'm doing well, as well as I can be, being away from everyone and all. _

_I have enclosed something that I hope will keep us linked even though we're so far away. _

_Words cannot express how much I love and miss you, _

_Bella._

I read her letter over and over, greedily taking in everything she wrote. It was short and completely avoidant, downplaying the situation. Trying to make a joke about something that was really very serious. It was... such a _Bella_ letter. No one else in this situation would write something like that.

I re-read the letter again, and chuckled at her silly 'weather remark'.

Then I realized that that was the first time I had so much as smiled in over a month. I shook my head.

I reached down and picked up the original envelope. Inside there was still the small package that I hadn't given a second thought to. All I had cared about was reading her letter, over and over and over.

I carefully unwrapped it. It was swaddled in brown paper with thick tape all over it. Once it was open I stared curiously at it.

A cell phone.

I opened it; the screen had a ladybug on it. Displaying the name of company who created it.

I pressed a button that opened the contact list. Only one number was on it.

_Bella. _It was labelled.

Without even fully realizing it, I had called the unfamiliar number and now had the black cell phone pressed to my ear.

It rang many times.

Ring.

42 days, 22 hours, 19 minutes, 54 seconds.

Ring.

42 days, 22 hours, 19 minutes, 56 seconds.

Ring.

42 days, 22 hours, 19 minutes, 59 seconds.

And then the other line picked up.

"Edward." She breathed.

0 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes, 0 seconds.

**So what did you guys think? Did you like it? Did you hate it? Do you want to hit me upside the head with a plank of wood for not updating?**

**Completely understandable.**

**I will **_**definitely **_**not take this long to update anymore.**

**I would love to hear your guy's feedback (even if it's cussing me out for taking so damn long to post this.)**

**~R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~**


	18. Chapter 18

**Thanks for the reviews. Bella has been in Volterra for a little over two weeks.**

**Bella's POV.**

**~R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~**

Beige.

That's all I could ever see. Beige, black and red.

The colors of Volterra were so different from the lush green and crisp whites I was accustomed to. I was used to seeing thick green trees, white snow, and sparkling rain. Here all I saw was crumbling tan walls, dark shadows of underground castles, and red blood.

I looked around the room they had chosen as my chamber. Red. All red. The curtain, the floors, the walls, the couches, the pillows, the bed, the blankets, the doors, everything in the room was varying shades of deep red.

I had never liked red. It seemed like such a harsh color to me, if a color could be such a thing.

Suddenly my head turned to the door without my consent. I furrowed my eyebrows, unsure of what had alerted me. Then I heard someone sigh outside my door and knock, loudly. Oh. Apparently I had missed both their approaching thoughts, and the actual knock.

I stood up and looked down at my blood red bed, sighing once again at the extravagance of the unnecessary item, and crossed the expanse of my room.

(A/N pic on profile.)

I swung the door open to find an irritated looking Demetri.

"Hey Isabella. I knocked twice already, where were you?" He inquired.

"Oh, sorry. I was just...lost in thought." I answered flatly, not bothering to correct what he had called me.

"Hmm. I guess that happens right?" He replied with a laugh. I didn't even bother to try and smile. "Anyway," He continued at my lack of a response. "The brothers are holding a meeting. Apparently there is some new girl who wants to join us. Wear something nice and someone will come up and do your hair."

I nodded, not the least bit interested in this 'new addition.' I had a vague Idea of who she was, having seen her once or twice in my visions. I knew she was a newborn, and dangerous, but I didn't know her name or her power.

Demetri sighed, and brought his hand to the back of his neck. He seemed to be concerned about something. Or someone? A look into his mind told me it wasn't me he was worried for. He glanced up at me, and noticed that I was staring at him and sifting through his mind; he then started to think about something else and turned away from me to retreat down the hallway.

I closed my door, confused by his actions. Why did he just stand there? He looked like he wanted to say something, but he didn't.

I sighed. Oh well, if there is something he wants to say to me then he can say it whenever he feels like it.

I walked towards my huge closet doors, and stopped just short of them. I reached my hand out and ran it softly across the smooth wooden doors. I closed my eyes and threw open the doors.

When I opened my eyes and gazed into the closet I was overwhelmed with emotions. There was clothes filling up every little space in this closet. This room reminded me of Alice. And Alice reminded me of...Edward.

Just thinking his name was enough to bring me to my knees. I collapsed onto the floor and let the sobs overtake me. I knew there was no way I could go on like this.

. . .

A while later I was dressed and my hair had been styled, I hadn't bothered to pay attention to the woman's name who had done it for me. I had a simple floor-length black dress on, it was beautiful. But I hated it. I never dressed like this, not unless my family wanted me to.

(A/N Pic on profile.)

I sat on my bed and put my head in my hands.

I couldn't believe I was in this situation. Thousands of miles away from my family, my husband, and my daughter.

I should be playing with my daughter right now. Or talking to Edward, or arguing with Emmett about nothing. But instead I was here. In a foreign city, waiting for someone to take me to the main hall.

That's another thing. I wasn't allowed to go anywhere by myself. They were afraid I would run away. There were right to think so, I knew if given the chance I would ran as fast and as far away from here as I could.

_God I hate wearing these stupid things. Did I tie this right?_

Of course they would send Felix to escort me. He was just about at my door, rambling in his mind about how bad his tux was. I sighed, crossed the room and opened the door before he could knock.

He blinked in surprise at my sudden arrival, but then he smiled leeringly and raked his eyes up and down my body. I grimaced in disgust and turned my head away.

"You look lovely, Isabella." Felix commented, I nodded in acknowledgement. He held his arm out for me to take; I just brushed past him and walked down the hallway. Undiscouraged he kept pace beside me, but didn't try to speak again.

We finally reached the main chamber, where we were to meet. The ornate wooden doors were left open as the rest of the guard arrived. I walked in and noticed that the brothers were already seated at their thrones, awaiting us.

When Felix and I entered Aro smiled, and nodded his head to the right, indicating where I should stand. Felix and I walked over to our position and stood in silence. Everyone in the room was wearing black. Black dresses and Tuxedos. I almost laughed at the fact that this situation reminded me of a Black Tie cocktail party. The way everyone looked made me think we should be sipping fine wine and smoking expensive cigars.

After everyone had entered the large doors were then closed by some of the men who were situated near it. There was two beats of silence before Aro called out for the one in subject to enter.

Out of a smaller door across the room from me a woman entered, she had short blonde hair and a smaller build. Clearly a newborn, her movements were somewhat erratic, her eyes were a bright clear crimson, and the only emotions I could read off of her were excitement, nervousness, and hunger.

Her eyes flickered around the room, assessing the environment, as a bulky vampire led her to the center of the room. Her thoughts were incoherent, but I could tell she was afraid of Aro, just as I had been when I had first met him.

"State your case." Aro said loudly.

"My name is Serena, and I would like to join your company." She said with forced formality. I could tell she was no older than 17, and I knew all too well how teenage girls could be. I easily saw in her mind that she only wanted to join the Volturi for the power of it. She liked to be in control of things, instruct things where to go and what to do. I knew if given the chance she would overthrow the Brothers and try to take the role of Head of the Coven.

"Oh? And what makes you think you would be a good addition to our little family." Caius sneered; I scoffed mentally at the word 'family'.

"I've heard about the Volturi from my creator, what you do and how you do it, and I think my presence would help you succeed in your quest for justice." She claimed, completely brown-nosing. I was finding it really difficult to not roll my eyes.

"Hmm... And your creator was?" Aro asked.

"He said his name was Derek. I didn't know him for very long; he left shortly after telling me the rules." She answered; the face I saw in her mind was not familiar to me.

Aro nodded in understanding. "And just how old are you exactly, my child?" he asked.

She smiled at his seemingly affectionate term. "Well, if the date today is the 14th, then I suppose it's been...five weeks." She answered. I thought back to five weeks ago, what had I been doing? I was lying on the grass of our front lawn, Edward by my side, with Renesmee running around picking flowers and putting them in my hair and Edwards.

I tried to ignore the dull throbbing ache I felt in my chest and focused once again on what was going on in front of my eyes.

"And do you have a power?" Caius asked.

"No. Not that I know of." Serena answered nervously.

"Hmm...Well, I would like to do a little...test if you don't mind?" Aro asked, arching an eyebrow. She nodded nervously in response. Ha, she was unaware of Aro's powers, what a fool.

Aro stood and stalked towards her, three guards walked in his shadow. He stopped right in front of her. She looked back up at him in fear, she had no idea what was coming.

"Your hand?" He asked sweetly. She flinched at the sound of his voice, and timidly raised her hand out to him. He gently took her wrist and closed his eyes in concentration. I saw all of her past flash through his mind, and I instantly knew what his answer to her request would be.

He opened his eyes and looked at her again, she had no idea what had just happened. He looked down at her knowingly and she cowered back from him.

"I see. Brothers, let us counsel." He said, turning away from her and leading his brothers out of the room to speak, though I already knew what was going to happen.

Serena looked around the room, gazing at all of the vampires around the room. I found myself wondering if I had looked and been that clueless when I had first come here. I felt somewhat embarrassed, because I knew that I must have. Cowering into Edward's side having no idea what they were talking about.

I closed my eyes, and took in the memory. I remembered how scared I had been, I'd had no idea what was going to happen to me. Suddenly I felt myself feeling sorry for the girl, Serena. She was so young, and had no idea what she was doing.

My thoughts were interrupted when the Brothers re-entered the room. Aro had a blank mask on, but I knew what he was thinking, Caius looked pleased, and Marcus looked...disinterested? Bored was too vague a term for the expression that was constantly on his face.

Serena looked up at Aro as he took his seat, her expression and feelings were hopeful and expectant.

"We have come to the decision that...you shall not be allowed to join us." Aro declared strongly.

Serena stared back at him, disbelieving. She couldn't believe something was not doing what she wanted it to do. Like it or not, she was not in control this time. Her manipulating mind had not fooled either Aro or me.

"What?" She asked angrily. "'I shall not be allowed to join you'? What is that? Are you testing me? I _will_ join you!" She yelled, her eyes glowing impossibly brighter with anger.

"We are _not_ testing you, and you will _not_ join us. We see no need for you in our coven, therefore we believe it will be best if we turn you loose and leave to you your own devices. Though you will continue to follow the rules, and you will continue to live. Just not in my sight." Aro answered flatly, his patience with this girl was growing thin.

She glared at him for a moment, seething. Then after a few moments of silence, she cried out. An angry, frustrated, vengeful scream. The heavy picture frames that were on the walls around the chamber began to shake as she continued to wail. It was so loud that I was fighting the urge to cover my ears; a few others in the room had already given into that urge.

Then, without warning, the pictures came loose from the stone walls, and appeared right on the brothers and the few guards that were around them.

I only had a few seconds of reaction time, having seen what she was going to do a moment before it happened. I looked at the company that was near the brothers. Demetri was among them, I didn't want him to be hurt; he was the one who had helped me the most out of anyone. I threw my hand out and put a thick physical shield around them all.

The picture frames crashed into the barrier with a resounding _boom_ that echoed through the room, and then they crumbled to the ground.

Upon seeing my movement Serena turned to me, furious that I had stopped her attack, taking a breath and screaming again she started to stomp towards me. I knew she was hell bent on killing me now, and she wouldn't stop until I was dead. I started trying to piece together battle techniques that I knew. I wasn't sure if I could beat her. I wasn't a very experienced fighter after all, the only things I had were my powers and a few techniques I had remembered from Emmett and Jasper, and she was a furious newborn.

But before she could reach me several members of the guard had pounced on top of her, her eyes met mine once more and I felt a horribly familiar burning pain race through my mind. And before I could say anything, or make them stop, she was in pieces. Her terrifying wail was cut off with a harsh gurgling sound, and then replaced with the sound of shredding metal.

I cringed and closed my eyes, not wanting to see her massacred remains.

Caius came forward and spat on her brutalized limbs, he said something about her that I tried not to hear. Before I could hear anymore I raced out of the room. I heard Felix and a few others calling out to me, but I ignored them.

I reached the door of my room, and slammed it shut once I was inside. I ripped all the clips out of my hair, and clawed at it until it fell limp. I held my hands out in front of me, and stared at my palms.

I spotted a vase on a mahogany table beside my bed, holding dark red roses that were almost wilted by now. I reached my hand out towards it and focused on it.

It started to tremble, and I smiled for the first time in almost three weeks.

**Honestly this is probably my favourite chapter of this whole story. **

**~R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~**


	19. Chapter 19

**Heyyo, thanks for all the reviews peeps.**

***PLEASE READ THIS!!!***

**I just added the first chapter of another story that's been bothering me for a long while now. I am only posting the one chapter and maybe another for now, until this story is finished. And that might be a long time because I already have an idea for a sequel to this. :D So please go check that chapter out, and review if you would like for me to continue it because I spent a really long time writing it. And also review if you would like for me to make a sequel to this or just end it. Thanks.**

**Bella's POV **

**~R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~ **

I have no idea how many objects I have broken in the past week, and still I'm getting nowhere with this new power.

Serena had given me the power of telekinesis, but I was sure that with my ability to not only take gifts but also to amplify them I would be able to turn it into something much more. But that was proving to be a very difficult task.

I just couldn't wrap my head around this gift. There seemed to be so many elements to it that I had to fully understand first. I had to know how to control all my emotions and keep them in check to be able to practice it. I had to think about where I wanted to object to move to, otherwise it might just crash into something. I had to know the make-up of the things I was moving, what they were and what was in them.

And most importantly, I had to know how to trigger it. That was what I had been working on for the past few days. I had tried so many things, and yet nothing seemed to work.

I tried being angry, just like Serena was when she first did it, focusing my rage onto whatever it was that I was trying to move, but every time I did that, the object would tremble and then just explode.

I had tried being totally calm. Relaxing and numbing my mind and then trying to move it. I sat staring at a closed book for hours, and it didn't even seem to consider moving.

The only thing that had seemed to work, just infinitesimally, was pouring all my energy into one place of my body and then trying to send it to the object. And even then the candle I was focusing on only moved a few inches at most before falling over. And I was totally exhausted by it; my mind seemed to collapse just as the candle fell over.

I was completely baffled and frustrated by the whole thing. All my other powers had only taken me three weeks to master. And this one power seemed like it was going to take me three years, if I ever did figure it out.

And to top it all off, I was trying to keep it a secret from everyone here. I knew I wouldn't be able to use it to the extent that I was planning if everyone knew about it. I wanted to use it to get out of here.

We'd had a meeting about everything that had happened with Serena, and I had lied to Aro saying that she had been killed before I could take her power from her.

So now here I sit, in my room alone, completely frustrated and confused.

I sighed and looked at a vase on my mahogany coffee table. I quickly thought about what it was made of in my head.

_Clay, paint, made by a human around 30 years ago, red roses inside it, move it onto the floor._

I focused all the power and strength in my body and let it gather together. In my mind's eye I could see it as being swirling blue electricity. I sent the ball of energy into my hand.

I stretched my hand out in the direction of the vase. The vase started to tremble lightly, just like always. I took a deep breath and let the energy travel slowly from my hand to the vase in a continuous circuit.

It trembled harder for a moment before becoming completely still, just like always. Then the vase started to move to the right. One inch... two.... three, four, five. It started to move faster toward the edge of the table. I tried to keep myself calm, even though I was really very excited, this was by far the farthest I had gotten.

I kept my emotions firmly in check and never lost focus on the vase. It was creeping toward the edge of the square table. It reached the very edge of the table and then stopped dead in its tracks.

_No! Keep moving! _I thought. I tried pouring more energy into the strand going from my hand to the vase. It still refused to move, so I tried to put even more energy into it. Finally, it started to move, though not as quickly this time. It moved one millimetre, then two; it was hanging off the table just slightly. Then it stopped moving again. It seemed to hesitate for a moment and then...

It fell backwards, the opposite direction I wanted it, onto the coffee table and broke into a few large pieces.

I groaned loudly, and flung myself back onto the bed. I took a pillow and plopped it over my face. Everything was so messed up; nothing ever went right for me anymore.

My life seemed so unbalanced. Before everything seemed to be equal to me, I paid a price for the things I loved and wanted.

For Edward I'd had to bear the pain of separation, and then I'd had to bear the pain of becoming like him. I'd done it gladly, and I didn't regret it at all.

For Renesmee, I'd had to endure endless amounts of pain, both physical from her kicking my ribs apart and emotionally from nobody believing me and having to watch both Edward and Jacob be in so much pain, but once again, it was all totally worth it.

Now I was wracking my brain trying to figure out what I had done wrong in my life. What was I repaying by being here?

I was interrupted with a vision.

_Aro sat at his throne with Caius and Marcus on either side of him. They seemed to be in discussion about something. _

_I couldn't hear what they were saying, but eventually they seemed to come to a conclusion that they all agreed upon._

_Aro raised his hand and snapped his fingers._

_Demetri strode into the room a moment later, dressed in casual dark jeans and a dark green sweatshirt. _

"_Go to Isabella's room and ask her to come here. Tell her I have something very important to tell her." Aro said with a mischievous smile._

I sighed. What was going on now?

I didn't feel like getting up, I had just wasted all of my energy on my most recent attempt.

I took a deep breath and removed the pillow from my face. I took a quick look around the room; the vase still lay broken on the table. I got up and put the pieces in the trash, I surveyed the room once more. Nothing appeared to be out of place. I took a look at the clothes I was wearing, a loose short sleeved shirt and tight jeans. I figured that was good enough.

Demetri knocked gently on the door just then. After taking one last good look around the room, making sure nothing seemed out of place or suspicious, I strode across the room and opened the door.

"The brothers want to speak to you. Aro says-"

"I know." I interrupted him. My voice sounded slightly rude, but I honestly didn't care if the people here considered me to be a bad person.

"Right. Well let's go." He said, never looking me directly in the eyes. He stilled seemed to have that far off look on his face whenever he spoke to me. He always seemed like he wanted to say something, but just never had the courage to. He kept it well hidden in his mind whenever he was around me as well.

I rolled my eyes. Why did I even care? I was sure he didn't care about my feelings, or the things I wanted to say to everyone here. I tried to push it out of my mind; I had enough things to worry about.

We reached the doors to the chamber; Demetri opened one of them for me and stood there until I slid through the door. He didn't enter with me.

I walked slowly to the center of the room; I avoided the place where Serena had stood on purpose. I looked up at Aro, who was still seated. I stood there, expecting him to say something, but he didn't. He just stared at me. It made me uncomfortable, his gaze was so critical, like he was sizing me up.

After a long awkward moment, he smiled a small smile at me. I didn't bother smiling back at him. This only seemed to please him even more. His face broke out in a large toothy smile and he started to laugh loudly.

I wanted to say something to him, something along the lines of 'I'm glad making me feel like an idiot while you stare at me is pleasing to you.' But I kept my mouth shut, and let him finish with his little 'funny moment.'

Eventually he stopped laughing and looked at me again.

"Good Evening, Bella." He said serenely, a hint of his laughter still lingering in his voice.

"Hello." I said evenly, keeping a blank expression on my face.

"How are you?" Was he serious? He tears me away from my family, throws me into this castle like a prisoner, he calls me down here, stares at me, and he wants to know how I'm feeling? Ridiculous.

"Fine. How about yourself?" I replied, trying to hide the annoyance threatening to seep out in my voice.

"I'm doing well, thank you."He said. He didn't add anything after that. Was he particularly fond of long awkward pauses?

I wasn't, so I spoke.

"You asked me to come down here?"

"Yes, I did." He answered, once again he didn't elaborate.

"Is there something I could do for you?" I prompted.

"Yes, as a matter of fact there is." He said with a smile. "I've been considering this for a long while, but I wanted to make sure you were ready first."

I nodded, not really sure of the response to give him.

"I would like to train you, both physically and mentally, so that you could become a real member of the guard. Would you?" He asked.

"What do you mean mentally?" I asked, concerned of the meaning behind his phrasing.

"Don't worry, I did not mean that we would brainwash you." He said chuckling at my suspicion. "I only meant that we will teach you how to fully harness all of your powers. Seeing as how you only 'self taught' yourself, I think it would do you some good."

"We?" I questioned.

"We have a few vampires in our guard that have the ability to teach you. You will learn battle tactics, self defence, how to use all of your powers to their full potential. Basically, you will learn everything you need to in order to become a full fledged member of the Volturi." He said.

I didn't like the way that sounded, I did not want to or plan to become a 'member' of his clan, because his clan was made up of liars and murderers. They were selfish, especially him, and I never wanted to be considered 'apart of them'. It was bad enough that I had to stay here.

"Will you?" Aro asked hopefully, tilting his head to one side. I thought about my options very thoroughly and weighed all of the pros and cons before answering.

"Alright, I'll do it." I finally answered. I had considered all of the good things that could come out of me getting trained. One: I could learn to defend myself. Two: I could have something to occupy my time. Three: I could get stronger and learn to harness my full potential. And Fourth: I could learn to use Serena's power. That was the most important thing in my mind right now. Learning. And so I hastily agreed as I realized that.

"Good." Aro said with a warm smile. "We should start with your training sometime in the next few days. But I'm sure you already know that." Aro said wistfully, referring to my power of foresight.

I only nodded. He seemed pleased that I had agreed to do as he asked. I didn't the possessiveness his thoughts held as he thought about my agreeing, but I tried not to let my annoyance and disgust show.

"Anyway," He continued. "I'll have someone come to get you when we're ready."

I nodded once again; he smiled and let me leave the room.

I turned around and opened one of the large doors. I closed it after I had gone through it, Demetri was standing near the doors waiting for me.

I walked past him down the hall and he led me back to my room.

Once the door to my room was closed, and I was left in solitude once again, I walked over to my bed and collapsed onto it.

I was exhausted, in every sense of the word. I missed my home, and everyone in it. I missed my daughter and watching her grow up. I missed Alice's energy, Rosalie's tough personality, Emmett's jokes, Jaspers serenity, and my second parents. And of course, I missed Edward, so much; I would give anything to hear his voice again, just for a moment.

I wished I could see him, or call him. Or have any sort of piece of him to help me through. But that wasn't going to happen.

Call him? Why did those two words seem to stick out in my mind over anything else?

They seemed to poke out into the forefront of my consciousness, trying to alert me of something.

Call him?

_Call_ him?

_Call him_.

Call him!

Finally I realized why those words seemed so important to me. It hadn't made sense at the time, and so many other things happening, both now and then, so I had just written it off. But now it made perfect sense.

I took myself back to a different point in time. A place so different from the one I was in now. A place with dirty floors and cracking walls. A place with an inhumanly beautiful boy.

**Bahahahaha, I'm so evil.**

**Anybody get it now??? It's kind of an obscure thing in the story I guess.**

**PLEASE GO READ MY OTHER CHAPTER FOR THE OTHER STORY I POSTED!!!!!!!AND REVIEW IT!!!!**

**~R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~**


	20. Chapter 20

**Hello again. Thanks for all the reviews. Keep them coming!**

**~R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~**

_Relax, keep calm, take in your surroundings, and find their position. _

I took a quick look around where I was. There were trees all around me making it difficult to see my adversary, there were a bunch of boulders far to my left. I decided I would go and investigate there to see if that was where he was trying to hide.

Trying to be sneaky, I made my way over to the boulders; once I reached them I ducked down behind a few of them and looked around again, seeing if anything had changed. Nothing seemed to have changed positions and he wasn't here in the boulders with me. I was starting to get frustrated; he couldn't have just vanished into thin air! I had looked everywhere and I hadn't even had a glimpse of him. I growled to myself, frustrated.

I was starting to lose my cool, so I took a deep breath and tried to calm down. I closed my eyes and stopped breathing. I focused completely on my hearing and let everything else melt away. I sat for a few moments in complete silence, until finally, I heard it.

A soft _thump_, and then another. Footsteps.

In less than a second I had jumped up and bolted into the forest to the right. I ran through the trees like a wraith, gliding through them like a predator searching for its prey, that's what I was right now, a predator.

I ran through the trees as quickly as I could, though it seemed my quarry had vanished once I again. I came up to a small pond and stopped just short of it. I scanned the area around me, searching.

I felt two arms wrap around my shoulders in an instant, and before I could fight them off I was thrown into the pond at my feet.

I floundered around in the murky water for a moment before I caught my bearings and stood up. It was only waist deep, but that's not what bothered me. The water was disgusting, the bottom was mushy and muddy and I felt my feet sinking into it. There was a thick layer of scum and foam going along the surface, I was wading in a whole in the scum I had created when I disturbed the water. I looked up at Demetri who was standing on the bank with a smug smirk on his face.

"This is not funny." I said angrily.

My anger only seemed to amuse him even more. I growled and tried to make my way to the shore, though that was proving to be very difficult. My feet kept sticking to the bottom of the pond; finally I just decided to ditch my shoes. With every step I took I felt the mud and the muck sliding in between my toes, it wasn't the greatest feeling in the world.

I heard Demetri chuckling even more at me. I looked back at him and started to get mad.

"Stop laughing! It's not funny, and it was totally unnecessary to push me in here!" I snapped. I was a few feet from shore when Demetri rolled his eyes and held out his hand for me. I glared murderously at it and then pointedly ignored it and continued trying to walk.

He sighed. "I'm sorry Bella. It was rude of me to do that, I just couldn't resist. And you're right I shouldn't have laughed it was just the way you looked. It's hard to take you seriously when you're completely drenched in mucky water, hair in a hundred different directions, and-" He suddenly stopped when I glared at him.

He cleared his throat and continued. "Just take my hand."

I looked at him for a moment, looking for insincerity, when I found none I sighed and took his hand. I let him yank me out of the water and back onto dry land. We were training, and I wasn't allowed to use any of my extra powers while we did besides my shield. They said it would make me stronger. But now that he had done that I let all of my powers come back into my mind. His thoughts slowly appeared in my mind.

The second my feet had been returned to dry land I stormed away from him.

"Bella? What are you doing?" Demetri asked, jogging to catch up with me.

"What do you think I'm doing? I'm leaving." I answered without looking at him, when I was finished speaking I gathered all my hair into a ponytail and tried to wring it out before putting it into a messy bun.

"But we're not finished yet." Demetri reminded me cautiously. I stopped walking and turned to look at him.

"You're serious? You're going to make me continue after what you just did?" I replied.

He surveyed my muddy, wet clothes quickly before he curtly shook his head.

"No. I suppose you can go then. But we have to come back tomorrow then."

"Fine." I said while I walked away and headed toward the exit of the training arena. While I was walking I noticed something strange. My vision was starting to blur. I felt very weak all of a sudden. I stumbled on a tree root, something that never happened to a vampire.

"Bella?" I heard Demetri call after I had caught my balance again. He seemed somewhat worried that I had tripped. I ignored him and continued walking. Suddenly a wave of dizziness came over me so powerful I had to struggle not to collapse. I leapt forward quickly to catch myself against the wall of the arena.

I heard Demetri rush up behind me and I had to fight with myself not to turn around and attack him. I was still young and things like that were sometimes hard for me, especially in situations like this, where I was the vulnerable one.

"Bella what's the matter?"Demetri asked, concerned. Wait. He was concerned? About me?

I looked up at him with unfocused eyes and sure enough there was sincere worry for me shining in his eyes and thoughts.

I decided to be civil because he was being nice to me.

"Dizzy." I replied looking away. He thought for a moment before finally asking me to look at him.

"How would that help? Are you a doctor?" I asked, suddenly thinking of my favourite doctor back home.

"Don't be stubborn. Just do it." He replied. I rolled my eyes before looking at him.

"You're thirsty." He stated almost instantly. I saw my eyes through his mind; sure enough they were pitch black and swirling.

"Yeah." I said, I hadn't really noticed it before now because I had only been around vampires for the last while and they didn't exactly qualify as food to me. He thought for another moment.

"Do you want to sit down?" He finally questioned.

"No. I just want to go back to my room and have a hot shower." I replied.

He looked me over and subtly smirked at the fact that I had no shoes on before he nodded.

"Okay, you go ahead and go back. I'll talk to the brothers about getting you something to eat. Or drink I guess I should say." He said smiling.

My head snapped up to him. Go ahead and go back?

"Alone?" I asked.

"Well yes, you know the way by now don't you?" He said looking at me strangely. Of course I knew the way; I had known it after the first time I was taken to my room.

"No that's not what I meant. I thought I wasn't allowed to go anywhere by myself?" I clarified.

"Well I trust you won't do anything stupid. You know what would happen if you did." Demetri said.

"You would come after me." I stated.

"No." He contradicted.

"No?"

He shook his head, "Aro would most likely tell us to go after your family." He said sadly, like that was an idea that he was not fond of. I looked at him murderously until I saw his eyes. I saw true sadness in them; his thoughts told me that he felt bad for me. I sighed and started to walk toward the door. I was actually starting to feel a little better; the dizziness had turned into just a dull ache in my head.

"You don't have to feel sorry for me." I told him.

"I wish you wouldn't do that." He said. I looked at him questioningly.

"Pick my brain. My thoughts are my own you shouldn't just pry into my head whenever you feel like it." He snapped.

My questioningly gaze turned deadly. He was acting like _I _was inconveniencing_ him_ by being here.

"I try to block you out whenever I can but sometimes it just isn't that simple. It's not like I can control it. It's not like I can control anything anymore. I can't help but hear your thoughts, I hear everyone's thoughts constantly, whether I want to or not. And trust me some of the things people think I would much rather be left unheard by me." I yelled at him and stormed off. His thoughts showed remorse for his words but I couldn't care less.

I stormed back to my room and slammed the door. I stomped across the floor to the bathroom. I had to take my steps slightly slower to keep from slipping on the mahogany floors. I got into the bathroom and slammed that door too. I knew I was being childish. Slamming doors? What was I five years old? I'm sure that just because I closed the door with unnecessary force they will come to my room and let me have whatever I want. Yeah right.

I sighed and looked at myself in the mirror.

Pitiful.

That was the word that was forefront in my mind right now, though there were many others right along with it.

Helpless.

Stupid.

Weak.

Dependant.

Hopeless.

Unhealthy.

Disgusting.

My irises looked like two chunks of obsidian splashed into the whites of my eyes. The circles under my eyes were so dark they were almost black. My wet hair was dull and my skin looked chalky.

For one fleeting moment I was glad that none of my friends and family could see me now. They probably wouldn't even recognize me.

I turned my back on the mirror, repulsed, and started to peel my clothes off. They made a gross _splat _noise that I cringed away from as they hit the ceramic floor. I turned the shower on and put the temperature as hot as it would go. Then I turned the sink taps on, as hot as they would go, so that there would be even more steam in the room.

I didn't get in the shower until all the air in the room was thick with steam. When the air became palpable with moisture I was satisfied and got into the shower. I took my time, letting the water wash away all the dirt and mud. I let the thick steam and hot water take over while I let my mind water.

. . .

Hours later I had resumed my recent routine of lying on my bed and staring at nothing. I had put on a loose long sleeved shirt and some jeans, and had let my hair dry however it so chose.

My headache was still there and was steadily getting worse, I was trying to ignore it but all the noise around me was making it worse. I had put my shield out as far as I could to try and block people's thoughts from my mind. But it made me uneasy being so vulnerable, so I tried to still keep a close watch on everything that was happening in the castle. But that was just starting to make my headache even worse.

I tried to ignore the shooting pains in my head and decided that at this point I would prefer silence over comfort so I kept my shield up.

After a while I heard someone coming down the hall toward my room. I instantly let my shield snap back into place. As soon as I did that I heard the footsteps in the hallway stop for a moment.

I quickly learned that it was Demetri in the hall. He was coming to tell me something but had been intrigued when he could sense me in his mind. He was disappointed that I had stopped but continued walking towards my room nonetheless.

I was still mad at him from his earlier comments and I didn't want to talk to him.

He stopped outside the door but made no move to knock. He then started to communicate with me through his thoughts. Smart man.

_The brothers want to see you. I talked to them about you getting something to eat and they agreed. Come to the main hall. I'll be waiting there for you. _

Then after a moments deliberation he added: _Sorry._

He walked away after that. I sighed, I was still kind of mad at him but he was the closest thing to a 'friend' that I had here. Also I kind of understood how somebody prying through your head might get kind of annoying after a while.

So I got up and went to the door, opened it and started down the hall towards the meeting room. I met up with Demetri about two thirds of the way there. He had waited for me as close to the main hall as was safe because I was not supposed to be walking around by myself. Great, another reason to be friends with him, he knew that I hated being toted around everywhere so he was going to do that for me and give me back a shred of my independence.

He met my eyes and apologized in his mind once more, but stronger this time. After a moment I nodded in his direction, forgiving him. He smiled softly and led the way into the meeting room. Once we reached it he stopped outside the doors and left me to enter alone.

The brothers were situated in their usual spots, expecting me. I walked at a fast pace to the center of the room.

"Hello Isabella." Aro said, the other brothers just nodded in my direction. I responded with a quiet yet polite 'hello.'

"Demetri tells me that you are quite thirsty and I see now that he is definitely right. Please forgive my inability to notice that you were in such a state." He tried to sound pleading but it seemed fake to me.

"It's alright. I only noticed recently myself." I said.

"Right. Well I have gotten something for you to feed on that should help to quench your thirst." He said.

"Thank you." I said sincerely, grateful that I was finally going to get rid of this pounding ache in my skull. Aro smiled accepting my thanks.

"Let's get this started. Bring her in." Aro said motioning for two people near the smaller doors to go and get 'her.' I furrowed my brows in confusion.

"Her?" I questioned. Aro just smiled.

The smaller doors reopened and the two men pushed in a female covered in cuts and bruises. My eyes widened in realization. They meant for me to feed on her. I had been foolish enough to believe that he would let me feed on animals.

She had blonde hair and was slightly shorter than me with blood was spilling from some of the cuts on her body and as she got closer to me her blood started to get to me. The fact that I hadn't hunted in weeks wasn't helping things in the slightest. I clamped both of my hands over my mouth and nose and closed my eyes. I refused to feed on her.

I felt them drop her at my feet but I didn't dare open my eyes. I could feel the heat from her body radiating towards me, making it that much harder to resist her blood.

All the vampires in the room were also trying to resist her, and their bloodlust was making mine even worse. I was trying to use Jasper's gift to calm them but it was barely helping.

She looked around the room, seeing the hunger in everyone's eyes, and then her gaze landed on me. I was facing away from her, and I was also the only one in the room who didn't look like they were just about to kill her. Or so she reasoned.

Then without any warning she lurched forward and wrapped her arms around my legs. I almost groaned, she had no idea what she was doing. Then she started yelling at me.

"De kidnappede mig! du nødt til at hjælpe! Vær så venlig!" She screamed at me, I knew she wasn't speaking Italian, which meant she wasn't a local, but I wasn't exactly sure which language she was speaking. Though it didn't really matter what language she was speaking because I knew what she was saying anyway, she was pleading for her life, for me to help. But there was nothing I could do for her. It was all I could do to hold myself back from killing her myself and I wasn't even doing a good job of that.

"What's the matter Bella? Aren't you going to eat?" Aro asked, sounding confused as to why I hadn't killed her yet. He knew why though, he was just playing a part. Bastard.

I heard the girl weep below me.

Then I did something that I really shouldn't have.

I opened my eyes.

I looked down to where she was attached to my legs. I saw all the blood all over her, dripping off and looking delicious and I couldn't help myself anymore. I didn't want to.

I took my hands away from my face and put them on her shoulders and lifted her away from my body and off the ground. I held her in front of me by her shoulders and stared at her. She saw the hunger in my eyes and immediately started to cry again. Thick tears falling over her cheeks.

"vær så venlig. vær så venlig. vær så venlig." She whispered over and over, her voice cracking.

She then seemed to realize that I couldn't understand her. She had heard Aro speak, she knew he was speaking English and she tried hard to remember anything she knew of that language that would help her.

"Ple-ase. He-lp m-m-e. Please." She said looking directly into my eyes, tripping over the words that were foreign to her.

"Ple-ase." She whispered to me. I looked into her eyes they were a bright green color. Lively even in sadness and fear, and they were staring straight at me. Pleading with me.

"Help?" She asked as I stared at her. I closed my eyes and slowly shook my head.

This made her start screaming even more, she went back into her native tongue and started yelling and thrashing around.

"Nej! ikke behager! Lad ga! Nej!" She screamed while trying to get out of my grip, but she couldn't, and there was no way she ever could.

"Shhh!" I finally yelled at her. She stopped mid-shout and stared at me wide eyed.

I looked at Aro.

"I want you to let this girl go." I said firmly. His eyes widened in shock.

"Why?" He asked stupidly.

"Because she did nothing wrong and I refuse to hurt her. I don't care what you say, she will go free." I told him, and I meant it. If I had to fight for this girl then I would.

Aro seemed to get over the shock and return to his senses.

"You know she can't be allowed to live even if you don't kill her right?" He asked me.

"She can and she will. I will manipulate her memories; she won't know a thing about any of this, or us." I said.

"And how do you plan to do that? And how would you get her out of here?" He asked.

"I will use your power to see her memories, and then use Santiago's power to change them. To get her out of here? I will use Alec's power to make her think she's unconscious, then when we are out of sight I can take it off her and she will think she simply woke up." I told him, I was somewhat impressed by the plan I had just made up on the spot.

Aro thought about my plan for a moment.

"And if I don't agree to this?" He asked.

"I think you know what would happen then." I said, narrowing my eyes at him.

He smirked at me, he knew I wasn't lying; I really would fight until I died for this girl.

"Hmm, you leave me no choice then I suppose. Do as you please." He said flippantly. "There's a hidden door that leads into an alley. Do what you must and leave her there, she should make her way back to wherever she came from."

I nodded and put the girl back on her feet, she hadn't said a word through our whole exchange, she looked at me her eyes swimming with confusion though she seemed to understand that I was bargaining with him.

I gently took her hand, she let me, and turned to lead her out of the room.

"Tell Demetri to take you there. And come back later so we can talk." He said. The last part seemed somewhat threatening to me, but I honestly didn't care what he was going to do to me as long as this stranger was going to be okay.

I opened the door and saw Demetri standing across the hall with an angry expression on his face.

"She-" I started but he cut me off.

"I heard." He said angrily. I furrowed my brows in confusion but he didn't explain he just pushed away from the wall and started to lead me to the hidden door Aro had told me about.

I looked at the girl while we were walking; she looked back at me with watery confused eyes.

"Help?" She finally asked me.

I looked back at her for a moment before slowly nodding and smiling warmly. She gripped my hand tighter after that and started to walk faster.

We finally reached a dead end. Demetri didn't say anything, he didn't move. He just stared at me with his angry eyes. I looked at him, completely confused.

"What now?" I asked finally.

He lifted a hand slowly and pushed against the wall; slowly it opened and showed a trash filled ally between two stores.

"Do whatever you have to do and come straight back." He said while walking away.

I couldn't believe he just left me here. I could just leave right now if I wanted to. There was nobody around; this part of the building seemed abandoned. I shook my head and turned back to the girl.

"Okay." I said, the girl looked at me, and then she moved to go out the door. I gently tugged on her hand to pull her back. She looked back at me with confusion.

"Wait." I said slowly to her, holding up my palm to her for emphasis. She seemed know what I meant so she paused and looked back at me.

Slowly I closed my eyes and found my way into her mind, she gasped and then I let Alec's power take over her. I caught her as she fell and set her gently on the ground. Then I got to changing her memories.

With my hold on her hand her memories were coming through into my mind, I carefully and meticulously went over them and altered the ones that I saw fit. When I was finished I opened my eyes and looked at her.

Her eyes were still open but they were unfocused. I closed them gently before lifting her up and putting her into the alley. I looked down the alley, it was a long way but there were people on the other end so I knew she would be okay if I let her go.

So I left her there. Closing the door and letting Alec's power slowly drift away from her.

On my way back to my room I thought about what had made me stop.

It was the look on her face. The pleading, desperate, wild look in her eyes that had made me stop. It had taken me back somewhere, into one of my memories.

She reminded me of Edward.

The way he had looked when I told him I had to leave, the panic on his face and his pleading words. They started to ring through my head as soon as I looked at her face. There was no way I was going to kill her after that.

I felt my chest tighten in pain as I thought about him. What had I done? I left him. Would he even want me back after all of this was over?

I felt the sobs bubbling up in my throat. I wouldn't cry in front of anyone here so I started to sprint down the halls.

When I finally reached my door I threw it open as fast as I could and slammed it shut just as fast. As soon as the door was closed I pushed my back against it and slid down it. I put my head in my hands and was just about ready to burst into tears when I noticed something.

I wasn't alone.

I jumped up off the floor and my head spun around wildly until I found the intruder.

Finally I saw him, leaning against the far wall of my room with his eyes closed.

Demetri.

"I need to talk to you."

**OH! What now?!!?!**

**I know this isn't the greatest chapter but please review it anyway.**

**I was going to have Aro kill that girl anyway but I just didn't have the heart to do it. Lol, so I just left it kind of open.**

**~R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~**


	21. Chapter 21

**Hey guys! Thanks for the Reviews and sorry it took so long! Go read my other story, The War of the Ring, it has two chapters up so far and I really like it so far! Thanks!**  
**~R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~**  
His words echoed through my mind, as if he was miles away from me.

_I need to talk to you._

_  
I need to talk to you._

_  
I need to talk to you._

My first instinct was to go over everything I had done in my mind and find out where I had gone wrong. Was he angry at me for saving that girl? That I had gone against his master and spoken back to him? That must be it.

"Look I'm sorry about that girl but I had to do it. I couldn't just leave her to-"

"I'm not angry about that." He interrupted, his red eyes never leaving my face. The bright reds in my room seemed to reflect in his eyes and make them look even more luminescent and terrifying.

I froze beneath his glare and for a moment I felt...different. I felt very small. Ever since I had come here I had been angry and upset, but now I was afraid. It was strange how just the look in his eyes could change my mood so much.

"Then what did I...?" I trailed off. I saw his eyes starting to blacken more with every word that I spoke. I knew I was in danger.

"That's not what I mean!" He finally yelled, throwing a vase across the room. I watched it crash into the far wall and shatter into a million little pieces, my eyes trained on the tiny reflections shown in the shattering glass.

I tore my eyes away from the broken vase and looked back to Demetri, he had yet to look away from me.

"Then what _do_ you mean?" I hedged carefully, very unsure of where this conversation was heading.

"I'm- I just-I-" He tried lamely ending with a frustrated growl. His thoughts swirled through his mind making my head start to pound again.

"I think you should calm down a little bit." I whispered gently, trying to get him to be quieter for the sake of my sanity.

However my gentle voice did not seem to help his mood in the slightest.  
His angered eyes flashed back to me and I couldn't help but flinch away from both the intense pain in my head and the furious look on his face.

He finally took notice of my fear and it seemed to dull the ferocity in his eyes.

"Don't be afraid." He said softly. My fear disappeared after he spoke.

But it was not because he had comforted me.

It was because my fear had been replaced with anger.

He'd given me every reason to be afraid. He had yelled at me, thrown things around, and he had barely even tried to explain himself.

I was about to open my mouth to say something that probably wasn't very smart but thankfully he interrupted me.

"I'm not mad at you. I'm mad at Aro."

My eyes bulged in shock.

I hadn't been expecting him to say that, my mind had been going in a totally different direction. And I had lost all hope in trying to read his thoughts or even trying to use any one of my powers, they made my head hurt too much.

But my shock was also due to the fact that I had never heard any one who was a member of the Volturi refer to The Brothers as anything else but 'master'.

"W-Why?" I stuttered.

"There's something that I've realized recently Bella. And today just made me believe in what I was thinking even more." He said with closed eyes and heavy breathing.

"What? What did you realize?" I pressured, I couldn't help it, my curiosity and my thirst were driving me insane.

"I realized that...this is not how I want to live my life anymore."

What did he just say? What does that even mean? The confusion made my head ache with an impossible intensity.

"What?" I finally choked out.

"I don't want to live the way I have been living. I want to be like you." He said.

Like me? What the hell was he talking about?

"Demetri stop being so cryptic, I can't take it." I pleaded. "Just explain everything and don't you dare leave out a single detail in that explanation."

He sighed and then looked deep into my eyes, never looking away, he looked as if he was searching for something in my confused gaze.

He seemed to find whatever it was that he was looking for so he finally continued.

"I was changed into a vampire when I was just twenty seven, a very long time ago. So long ago, in fact, that I hardly remember _anything_ about it anymore. I could have been anything and I wouldn't know about it. I could have been married, been in love had children and I would never know about it!" He stopped to compose himself. "Only four years after I was turned they found me. The brothers I mean. They offered me a position here and I took it, because I wanted the power the position gave." He paused and seemed to think very hard about what he said next. "I've killed countless people, because they've told me too. They wanted me to. I learned to numb myself. I learned to ignore the screams for mercy and I've learned not to feel anything as I watch the light fade from people's eyes." He said, painting gruesome pictures in my mind.

"But," he continued, a little more lighthearted. "You've shown me something. Your family has shown me a different life. One that's not filled with blood and gore, but instead is filled with love and family. And I want you to teach me." He said looking straight into my eyes, unblinking and unwavering.

I blinked in surprise.

"T-Teach- You?" I stuttered out.

He only nodded. I stared at him. Waiting for him to start laughing and say _Just Kidding Bella!_

But he never did. He just stared at me with the same intense expression. Then I finally named the expression for what it was.

_Pleading._

He was begging me for help. Begging for me to teach him.

"How?" I finally asked. Then I asked the more important question that was on my mind. "Why?"

"I think only you know how Bella. That's why I am asking this of you in the first place." He said with a sarcastic scoff. Then he continued. "As for why. I-"

He stopped short, I was unsure whether he had halted because he was embarrassed or because he just didn't know what to say to me.

"I just- I want to know...what its like."

I furrowed my brows in confusion.

"So...you want me to teach you to resist human blood because your...curious?" I asked.

"No, no, no, no." He told me hurriedly. "Its not that I want to know what its like to drink animal blood. I want to know what it feels like to...god this is embarrassing." He stopped again, though now I knew the reason for his hesitation.

"Just spit it out please." I demanded, my headache was making me a lot more irritable.

He looked at me in the eyes once again and I watched as all the insecurities seemed to melt off of his face, only to be replaced with fierce determination.

His jaw was set, and his chin high, his gaze unwavering.

"I want to know what its like to..._love_ like you do. I want to give my whole heart to someone, the way you gave your heart to your Edward, and he returned the favor. I want to know what its like to crave a woman's body instead of her blood."

I felt the pain flare in my chest while he spoke of mine and Edwards love. Our love seemed like such a distant thing to me now. A far off goal that was barely visible because of my distance from it. It felt like a dream to me.

I opened my mouth to say something, but the words caught in my throat. I didn't know what to tell him. I barely knew what _I_ was doing as a vegetarian, and I was supposed to _train him_? And besides, wasn't I considered a vampire...exception? Didn't the rule of a 'crippling craving for human blood' not fully apply to me?

Demetri seemed to read the hesitance on my face, and went into damage control mode...or begging mode. Which ever you prefer.

"Please Bella. I- I'll do anything I swear. I'll help you to keep your normal...diet and I'll do anything else you ask, _please_. I'm...begging you." He said roughly, and then he added in a tense whisper. "I just want to know...I want to remember."

"How would you do that? How would you keep my diet?" I asked, he had caught my full attention when he said that.

A small smile ghosted across his lips.

"Bella, I've already told you. I've been here for a very long time. I'm an elite member. That comes with benefits."

I let out a breathless chuckle, but still couldn't find the answer to his request.

"Anything you want Bella, I can make it happen." He told me. "Within reason of course." he added as an afterthought. Most likely catching onto where my mind was headed.

"I...just don-" I started but was then interrupted by the ache in my head. It had intensified to an unimaginable amount. All the air in my lungs _whooshed_ out and I clutched my hands to my head.

I closed my eyes as tight as I could and tried to will the pain away. But it just wasn't working.

But then something happened.

I started to see something.

At first it just seemed like some kind of spark behind my eyelids, nothing out of the ordinary. But then those sparks started to become faces. I tried to focus on the blurred faces, curious as to what or who they were. Slowly, the fuzzy faces became brighter...and then more defined. Until I could finally recognize a face...But what I saw, made me wish I hadn't tried so hard.

_Renesmee._

Seeing her little face made me gasp and choke with instant sobs. I was barely aware of Demetri now, though I could vaguely hear him calling to me. But I chose to ignore him, and instead focus on my daughter.

I saw her, lying in her bed back at the house. My heart broke as I saw little tear droplets rolling down her face. She had her tiny hand clamped over her mouth to muffle her sobs.

She took her hand away from her mouth for a just a moment to choke out one word.

_"Mommy."_

The vision changed again...but what saw next was not any better than the first.

This time I saw Edward.

Seeing his gaunt and sad face made my heart throb.

He was sitting on a couch, opening some kind of envelope. Then he took out a letter, he glanced at the page for the shortest moment before dropping it like it had burned him. Then he wrenched his legs up to his chest and began gasping for air. I tried to focus on what it was he was reading. It hurt my head to try, but I felt like I needed to _know_.

I couldn't see much, but what I did see was all that I needed to finally fully understand everything that I had been thinking ever since I had first looked at Serena.

_-cannot express how much I love and miss you._  
_Bella._

He had been reading a letter from me.

I wrenched my mind away from the visions and was surprised to find myself on the floor, still clawing at my head like an animal. But I shook off my bewilderment and blurted the only two words I could.

"_Teach me_!" I all but yelled at Demetri who was knelt next to me on the floor, confusion on his face.

He hesitated before asking what I wanted him to teach me.

"Everything. I want to learn _everything_. Teach me how to use my powers like I want to. Teach me how to fight. And damn it don't hold back. When I say I want to learn everything I really do mean everything! No breaks, no arguing, nothing! _Just_ teaching." I babbled, sounding like a complete fool but not finding it in me to care. Then I added the only thing I knew would change his mind.

"Teach me all this, and I'll show you how to resist humans."

His eyes widened in surprise, like he hadn't expected me to agree in the end.

We stared at each other in silence for a moment.

There was no noise around the castle. It was strange to me, how we could be having this really tense conversation, and nobody even has the slightest clue of the huge change that's happening right now.

Finally Demetri grabbed me by the arm and all but dragged me out of my room.

"Okay it's a deal. I swear to you I will teach you everything I know, and as fast as I can. But there is one more thing I have to ask of you." He asked me, while still walking at a rushed pace.

"What?"

We finally reached a door and he released my arm and spun around to face me.

"You have to promise-" He started but then thought better of his choice of words. "You have to _swear_, that you don't tell anyone about this whole thing." He told me solemnly.

Without even having to think about it I thrust my hand out towards him.  
"Deal." I said.

He took my hand and shook it once.

"Deal." He said with a smile. Then he thrust the door open and I couldn't help but gasp in surprise.

It was outside.

Just beyond the door there was a thick, vast forest that probably stretched for miles.

"Lesson one starts now. Let's go." He said, running off into the darkness of the forest.

I hurried after him, eager to learn.

...

After a week of training I felt as if I finally knew everything I needed to.  
Excluding _one_ thing.

Serena's power was still out of my reach. I'd had to explain how I'd received her power of teleportation and how I thought I could transform it into something much more.

He'd laughed and then said he was surprised that the brother's hadn't seen right through my lies when I'd told them I had not taken her powers.  
Nonetheless, he had taught me everything I'd needed to know about fighting. I could probably kill anyone or anything I wanted to now...or at least that's how I _felt_.

We'd had no breaks or rest, except when we had to make appearances so as not to raise suspicion among the guard.

I'd told Demetri how to resist humans, and in exchange he taught me everything the rest of the Volturi would not want me to know, and he also let me hunt.

Every few nights he would take me out of the castle and we would try to hunt the nearby wildlife together.

He tried his best to just take the animal blood and still function and act the way he wanted to...but it was still very hard for him.

Of course I'd expected this, he'd been drinking human blood for who knows how long and he just up and decided to quit cold turkey?  
I knew he was frustrated with his lack of progress, but I told him that it took time. And then I'd told him something I'd promised myself I would not talk about here.

I talked to him about my family.

Well, about Carlisle specifically and how he overcame his blood lust, and how long it took for him to become totally desensitized.

I didn't tell him a lot, but we both knew it meant a lot that I was talking about it in the first place.

It was nighttime now and we were going to try yet again to learn Serena's power.

I was waiting in the same spot we usually used to train. The arena.

Demetri finally showed up and took a seat on a fallen tree.

"So...you ready?" He asked with an odd look on his face. He was...smiling. Usually he never smiled while we did this, he was always either straight faced and serious or he was frustrated and angry.

"Why are you so happy?" I questioned, quirking my eyebrow at him.

"Well, my dear Bella," _Oh here we go,_ I thought, rolling my eyes. Demetri was such an actor. Always trying to raise the suspense and make everything more dramatic. He smiled wider in response to my reaction.

"Okay, okay I'll get on with it." He promised, _no patience_, he thought condescendingly. "I walked in on one of the members going for a...midnight snack, I suppose you could say."

I narrowed my eyes suspiciously.

"No. It's not what you're thinking. Let me finish." I nodded for him to continue. "So I walk in on one of the guard members draining this guy dry-"Wince"-and just completely out of control. The guy was twitching and everything." I grimaced; he was coloring a picture in my mind that was just a little too bright.

"Sorry." He said, taking notice of my discomfort. "So I walk in there, and my first instinct is to just try to take the blood right? So I was about to go for it, when I remembered what you told me. I thought about the life this guy had and everything. Then when I got myself back under control, I held my breath, and I was able to walk away eventually." He told me proudly.

I looked at him in disbelief. He had only been avoiding human blood for a week and already he'd resisted it in a situation like that?

"That's...unbelievable." I told him honestly.

He beamed at me, and I couldn't help but smile hesitantly back at him.  
To be honest, I was somewhat proud of myself. I had taught him something that was going to help change his life. And on top on that I'd taught him _well_. Way to go me.

"Anyway, let's keep going with this." He said. I nodded and started with my training exercises.

...

After hours of trying I was starting to get really annoyed. This had to work. I needed it too, and I just _could not_ figure it out.

Demetri had been silent the whole time, still sitting on the fallen tree, somewhere behind me.

I tried once again, in vain, to move the rock I had been focusing on all night.

I watched as I poured all my energy into the stupid rock, and then I watched as the stupid rock stupidly wouldn't budge, and then it just stupidly sat there, mocking me.

It made me feel...stupid.

I growled and then lounged forward and started to tear the rock apart. Every crash of the rock crumbling was more satisfying than the last. When I had finished with my..._'rock rage'_ I turned around and looked back to Demetri.

"This isn't working." I called to him, stating the obvious.

He had his eyes closed and had a small smile on his face.

"I can see that." He said back. His smugness was not helping me or my heightened emotions right now.

I stormed back over to him and plopped down on the ground in front of him.

"I just don't get it. I've tried _everything_. I tried being _pissed_ at the rock! I tried _ignoring_ the rock! I tried being _friends_ with the rock! I tried being happy with the rock! I tried everything! The only thing I _didn't_ try is being in love with the _ridiculous rock_!" I yelled.

Demetri sighed, I knew he was just as frustrated as I was with this.

"Well, Geez Bella, how the hell am I supposed to know what to do? Only you know, in the end, how to make _your own_ powers work. And if you've tried everything except falling in love-" He suddenly stopped and looked away from me, like he had just remembered something important.

Then he was laughing, and I had never been more confused.

"Um...can I ask what is so funny?"

"I just realized what you're doing wrong." He told me, with a smile still on his face.

I looked at him in shock.

"Really, just like that you had an epiphany?" I asked doubtfully.

He nodded. "Come here." He said standing and then taking me over to another small boulder. One about the size of a computer.

"Okay now look at the rock." I did as I was told. "Don't bother with the energy thing, just think about your heart."

"What do you-" I started to ask but he stopped me.

"Don't interrupt. Just listen."

I nodded, giving him my full attention.

"I want you to focus on what you want the most at this very moment. In the deepest part of your heart, what is it that you desire most." He stopped to let me think.

"I want-"

"No, don't tell me what it is. Just focus on it. Think about it. And think about how it would make you feel if you got that."

I focused on what it was that I wanted most, I let it turn into a vision. It consumed my entire mind and filled me with such an overwhelming joy that I almost fell to my knees.

"Good, now I want you to use what you're feeling right now, and try to share that energy with the object you want to move." He whispered, trying not to distract me too much with his voice.

I did what he told me without opening my eyes; instead I could sense the rock in my mind, so I tried to include it in the wonderful vision in my mind.  
Then there was silence, there was no sound of movement, and there was no sense of overwhelming accomplishment going through my mind. I realized with a crushing finality that I had failed, yet again.

I turned away and started to walk away.

"W-Where are you going?" Demetri asked, baffled.

"I quit. This obviously just isn't meant to be, so I'm just going to quit trying so damn hard." I told him in an utterly defeated voice.

I felt his hand on my shoulder then, trying to get me to come back.  
I sighed.

"Demetri look, if it's not going to happen it's just not going to happen. Don't try to change my mind. I-"

"Bella stop." He said. I stopped walking. "Look." was all he said.

I decided to just listen to him; he obviously was not going to let me go until I did what he asked.

I sighed again, still completely frustrated, and turned around lazily.

Only to freeze in shock.

The rock had vanished; there was a small patch of soil left where it used to sit. I could do nothing but gawk at that one spot.

I had finally done it! I smiled brightly, trying desperately to restrain myself from bursting into dance, and turned to Demetri.

"How far did it move?" I asked excitedly.

"It didn't move, Bella." He answered. I furrowed my brows in confusion.

"It just vanished." He clarified.

"So...So I..." I couldn't get the words out.

"Congratulations, you're a teleporter."

**:O**  
**Ha-ha. Sorry peeps, I took a really long time to update. It was because of multiple reasons. First, my mom kicked me out of the house, so I had to move in with my dad and start a totally new school, which sucked. And then I saw New Moon, and I was a little less than impressed.**  
**I kind of lost my passion...**  
**For a couple of days, lol.**  
**But then I saw it again, and I liked it a lot better the second time around. So with my passion renewed I wrote up this baby. :D**  
**Sorry it took so long!**  
**R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~**


	22. Chapter 22

**Wow you guys! I was so excited with how many people read my last chapter that I decided to post this one too! From 3 o'clock to 8 o'clock yesterday almost 600 people read it! That's so amazing! **

**And now I will make you all a deal. If my review count gets to 100 I will update this week again!**

**So Review your little butts off!!**

**~R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~**

It's never hard to try your best at something if you truly care about what it is you're trying to do. If you love running then you have all the motivation you need to run a marathon. If you are fond of writing, it wouldn't be that difficult to write a book. If you lived for violence, it wouldn't be so hard to kill innocent people.

Everything that I had thought and dreamt about since I came to Volterra was going to happen…because I was motivated enough to work for it.

Of course it was not to the fantastical element that I wanted, but a fragment of my desires was enough for me.

All of my training and the new knowledge that came with it had not only given me strength, it had given me at least a small bit of hope and comfort. All I had to do now was utilize the things I had learned, and realize the small part of my desires that I was allowed.

So many things had been put in motion by the smallest of things. Serena had crashed her car and was turned into a vampire, which brought her to me, or more importantly it brought her power to me.

I had learned to use her telekinesis, and had now transformed it into the power of teleportation. It had been a lot of work, and I still didn't know if it would even fully work, but I had been vain enough to try.

Now it was time to put all my hard work to good use.

A knock on my door brought me out of my thoughts.

I heard Demetri mutter the customary 'It's me.' from the other side of the door. I quickly went over to the door and opened it.

He stood before me, holding a small black bag, looking both cautious and anxious.

"Did anyone see you?" I asked.

"No. I don't think so." He replied shaking his head. "Are you sure this is going to work?"

"Of course I'm not _sure._ I have never tried it before." I replied with a 'duh' kind of tone in my voice.

He smirked and stepped in my room, I quickly took notice of the fact that his eyes had started to darken infinitesimally, a side effect of animal blood, his once bright red eyes were beginning to dull.

I closed the door behind us while he surveyed my room quickly.

"Don't you ever turn any lights on in here?" He asked.

"What's the point?" I replied.

He simply shrugged with a smile on his face.

"Okay, I got everything that you asked for." He stated, his expression turning completely serious. "Paper, two envelopes, a label, and two untraceable cell phones." He handed me the black bag filled with all the items I had requested.

I quickly opened the bag and did a quick once over of everything that was there. I nodded at him, showing him that I approved of his work.

"I told Aro that you and I would be training all night, so I'll take you outside and we can hunt a little first, and then I'll give you some privacy to do what you need to." He told me.

I nodded again.

"Okay, I'll leave you to get to work and I'll be back sometime tonight." He said.

I thanked him and he walked out of my room.

Now came the hard part.

I walked over to the desk that I had never used before, in the corner of my room. I took everything out of the bag and laid them each on the table separately. Then I took a seat on the ornate wooden chair that was placed in front of the desk. I had to open a few drawers before I could find a pen.

Then I simply stared at all the things in front of me, they would look so small and insignificant to another person, but to me…they were vitally important.

I decided to start with something easy.

I picked the larger envelope up and placed it in front of me. Then I grabbed the white label that Demetri had printed for me off the desk. I didn't look at the name that I was printed on it, I knew this was going to be a painful thing to do, and if I went through with all of this and in the end it didn't work I would be completely crushed.

I peeled the paper off the back of the label and placed it in the center of the larger envelope, never looking at the name printed on the label.

Once I was satisfied with the placement of the label I flipped the envelope over so I wouldn't accidentally look at the name.

I sighed and then picked up one of the cell phones. I quickly punched in the number of the other phone into the contacts list.

Then I hit a roadblock.

I wasn't sure what I should label the number as. I wasn't absolutely sure where this package was going to end up, and nobody could know about it. I was worried that if I put my name on it and it fell into the wrong hands then I would be found out.

But… if this did work and when they received this they didn't understand what to do with the phones…

I was starting to over think things once again, so I just typed in my name as the contact.

_Bella._

Now it was time for the hardest part of this whole thing.

I grabbed the pen and the blank piece of paper, and placed them in front of me.

They both seemed to weigh a lot more than they actually did as I lifted them.

I stared at the piece of paper, breathing deeply and twirling the pen with my fingers. I couldn't think of anything to say, or rather write. Even trying to come up with a greeting was hard.

_Edward,_ No that didn't seem good enough.

_Dear Edward,_ That wasn't right either, too generic.

_To Edward,_ Ugh, no.

_Hey! _I snickered at the thought of what his face would look like if I wrote that.

Why was this so hard? It was just a greeting. But it seemed like so much more than just a greeting to me, I wanted him to see, in every word that I wrote, my love for him and how strong it truly was.

Sighing, I finally decided what to write.

The words came out awkward and somewhat silly, but I didn't care, they resembled my personality.

Once I had finished writing I signed my name, just like it looked in the vision, and folded the paper without re-reading it.

I put it into the smaller envelope and didn't bother printing anything else on it. I placed the phone on the table and swaddled it with some packing paper and tape that Demetri had thought to include. I placed everything inside the large envelope and sealed it.

I placed it gently on the flat surface in front of me, and stared at it for just a moment. This was only a fragment of what I wanted to give to him, what I wanted to say to him. But at this point it was all I had to give.

I closed my eyes and readied my mind for the difficult task ahead.

I thought of what I wanted most in the world.

I imagined going home, walking up to my family's house and throwing the door open. I imagined everyone was sitting in the living room, waiting for me. Edward sat on the white couch, sadness in his eyes, watching Renesmee play on the floor at his feet. I saw Renesmee look up as I came in the door, and I watched the pure elation on her face when she recognized me.

Upon hearing her thoughts Edward would look up in shock and see me standing in the doorway. The pain and sadness would fade from his eyes and he would smile at me.

I felt an insurmountable joy going through my body. I let that joy wander over to the package in front of me. And then I focused as hard as I could on the house, where I wanted the package to go.

After a good ten minutes of concentrating I decided it was finally time to see if it worked.

Slowly I opened one eye and gazed down at the table in front of me.

Only to be met with an empty space.

I smiled, it had worked.

. . .

It's funny how you never realize how lonely you really are until you loose your best companions.

You never realize how dark and quiet the night is without them until they are banished from you or you from them.

I shook my head at my masochistic thoughts; I'd been thinking such things for far too long.

Demetri was going to be here in 17 minutes, we were going to leave to hunt and then… I wasn't really sure what was going to happen after that.

I had seen that Alice received the package I had sent this morning, but had waited to give it to him until after dusk. I had been disappointed that I would have to wait, but she probably had a good reason for it, though I didn't know what it was.

I decided I would try to get dressed to pass the time; I turned and strode toward my closet to find something to wear.

I opened the large wooden doors and sighed at the monumental amount of unnecessary clothing it held.

I started going through some of the racks looking for a pair of pants and some kind of sweater. However, it seemed that wasn't going to be easy seeing as how the majority of this colossal clothing collection was made up of black dresses, each one barely any different than the last.

_Short black dress, sleeveless black dress, long black dress, another long black dress, long sleeved black dress,_ another_ long blac-_

My mind stopped short as I came across another one of the black dresses. I pulled it off of the rack to get a better look at it.

It wasn't that it was any different than any of the other black dresses, aesthetically speaking, but this one just seemed so…_familiar?_

After a good five minutes of staring at the stupid thing I finally remembered where I had seen it before.

When we were in the abandoned shop, in Sitka, I'd had a vision. I hadn't thought about it often…

_I was standing in a clearing by myself. I was in a floor-length black dress; my hair was put up in an interesting way. I didn't recognize the place I was in. It was dark, the clouds were almost black and the wind was harsh. My dress was blowing wildly in the wind, as was my hair. But still, I didn't move. My face looked like a blank rock. My eyes were black and lifeless. I was just staring at nothing, for a long time. Then I started to cry. I sank to the ground, sobbing, my dress getting dirty and ripped, but I didn't look like I even noticed. The future me looked down, and in my hand was... a cell phone._

Instantly I started to peel off my clothes and put the dress on as fast as I could. As sad and pathetic as that future me had been I wanted to talk to him more than anything, I didn't want to make any decisions that could compromise that in the end.

_But…_some over thoughtful part of me reasoned, _what if the reason you were crying in that clearing was because all these things _didn't _work._

_No!_ I mentally scolded myself, that wouldn't be it. All the things I had done and had worked for were going to add up to something in the end, I knew it. Besides, I wasn't going to think that way; I needed to be optimistic for once.

I finished putting on the dress and then ran to my bathroom to try and make my hair look like it had in the vision.

After about 9 minutes of prodding, poofing and pulling on my hair I finally got it to resemble the vision. I turned to leave the bathroom when I caught my reflection in the mirror.

_Maybe I should put on some makeup…_ I wondered errantly. Then I rolled my eyes at my stupidity, we were going to (_maybe_) be talking on the phone, it wasn't like he was going to see me.

I sighed and left the bathroom, sitting on my bed to wait the remaining 2 minutes until Demetri arrived.

He arrived right on time and escorted me to our hunting grounds, he didn't talk to me the whole time, he knew how anxious I was right now.

The whole walk over to the grounds was somewhat of a blur to me, I was forcing myself to think positive, but not be too hopeful. It was a difficult task for me.

Demetri left me to hunt on my own and to give me some time to talk to Edward…maybe.

I didn't have an appetite for hunting so instead I wandered around until I found the clearing where I had (maybe) been talking to Edward.

I stood in the middle of it and took out my phone.

I waited in the darkness of the night.

_And_ waited.

And _waited._

_And waited._

And he never called.

I heard Demetri approach after an hour of waiting, and my heart sank to the ground.

I had tried not to be too optimistic, and in the end I had still gotten hurt.

I sank to the ground and began to sob, I could vaguely hear my dress tearing but I just didn't care.

_Ironic…_a part of me thought. Hadn't I ruled out this outcome just a little while ago? And now, of course, it had happened.

Fate, it seemed, just didn't like me at all.

Demetri slowly advanced out of the woods, he had heard me crying and wasn't sure of what to do. His steps were cautious as he came forward, his eyes never leaving mine.

"I'm sorry, Bella." He whispered sadly.

_Buzz._

My eyes snapped down to the phone in my hand.

_Edward Calling_ flashed across the front screen.

I couldn't believe it, he had actually called. I smiled as wide as my face would allow and looked to Demetri.

"Well answer it you idiot, don't just stare at me!" He exclaimed with a relieved smile, and then he turned to leave me alone.

As soon as he had left I ran into another dilemma. I didn't know _how _to answer the phone.

All the buttons were written in Italian and I didn't know what they meant. I had only thought to change the settings in all the displays to English, but I hadn't thought to ask someone what each button meant. I started pressing all the buttons frantically.

This sort of thing could only happen to me_, you wait for your love to call you, but you can't answer the stupid phone when he does because you don't know Italian. _

"Come on!" I yelled to nobody, still pressing all the buttons rapidly.

_Call accepted! _Flashed across the screen and I pulled it up to my ear.

"Edward…" I breathed in relief.

Silence.

**EPOV **

I couldn't believe I was actually hearing her voice right now.

Was I day dreaming again? I must be. I would not dare speak out load because if this was just a delusion then I was going to make it last as long as I could.

_Bella. _My mind sighed contentedly.

She didn't respond right away and I instantly panicked, but after a moment she finally spoke again.

"Edward?" She cried in anguish, tears in her voice.

The pain in her voice snapped me out of my idiocy, she really was on the other line!

"B-Bella," I choked out, I hadn't said her name in so long.

"Oh, Edward, I thought you hung up." She said.

"Is this- Am I… is it really you?" I asked stupidly.

"Yeah, it is." She confirmed.

After I finally had definite confirmation that it was in fact her I was talking to my mind exploded.

Not in a painful_ bang _kind of way, but more like a flood of emotion suddenly filled me.

"Oh god, I cant believe- I thought you…Are you okay? Do you…Where are you…How?" I said, I couldn't keep one single thought going for more than half a second.

She laughed on the other end and the sound made me want to cry out with joy, I had missed her so much.

"I'm sorry; I just can't…believe it." I finally said.

"I know, I know." She said.

"How? How is this possible?" I asked her, truly baffled as to how this had all come to be.

"It's a really long story Edward, and I don't want to waste our time with it." She told me firmly.

_Our time?_

"Oh, How long…do we have?" I asked, mentally smacking myself for not calling her earlier so we could have more time.

"Not very long I'm afraid. But, please, let's not worry about that right now." She said. I agreed with her.

So we talked.

About anything and everything.

She asked me a million questions about the family and what we had been doing. I tried to ask her a few questions too, but she always gave me short answers. That worried me, what had she been up to in the past month?

We talked for what seemed like a very short time, but that time meant more than anything to me. It was like a healing elixir to me. Every wound I had been given, or given to myself seemed to vanish with every word she spoke.

"Thank you for your letter by the way…it was…intriguing, to say the least." I laughed, I don't think I had stopped smiling this whole time.

She chuckled, "I really didn't know what to write. I'm sorry I couldn't write you a better letter."

"No, don't be sorry for it, I loved it." I said honestly, and then I added "I love you."

She paused on the other end.

"I love you too Edward, but I have to go now. I'm so sorry." She said, sounding on the verge of tears.

I paused and my mind started to panic.

"Can I call you again?" I asked frantically.

"No, don't call me. I'll call you. If you call me and I'm with someone who would tell the Brothers about this…we would be implicated." She said. "Promise me you'll wait for me to call _you._"

"I promise, love." I answered, the smile finally melting off my face. "I promise to not call you if you promise me that you'll call me tomorrow." I begged.

"I'll...try." She said hesitantly. "I don't know if I'll be able to, but I'll try my best and I will call you again sometime soon." She bargained.

"Okay," I agreed. "I love you Bella, so much." I said fiercely.

"I love you too, Edward. I miss you. Please tell everyone else that I love them too. Especially Renesmee." She pleaded.

"I swear I will." I said.

"Bye." She breathed.

"Bye." I whispered.

But she was already gone, and my heart had already broken all over again.

**:( **

**That was so upsetting to write. **

**Sorry it took so long to get back to Edwards POV, I only wanted to do ONE chapter in Bella's POV but it kind of turned into four…and a half. Lol.**

**Remember! 100 review count and I will update again this week!!!**

**~R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~**


	23. Chapter 23

***slowly starts to applaud* Well. Done. You. **  
**I HAVE ONE HUNDRED REVIEWS!!! HUZZAH!!! I love you all so much I want to give you...I cannot even think of something funny or ridiculous enough to offer you! Maybe a purple giraffe with a red bow and a box of white chocolates in the shape of hippopotamusesesesss?**

**Anywho I was so excited, and I fulfill my promise to you now. *Bows lowly and steps back behind curtain.***

**~R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~**

**EPOV**

After the phone call I was a mess of emotions.

_Anger._

_Fear._

_Depression._

_Disappointment._

The force and shock of all of my feelings flooding through me at the same time brought me to my knees. Tears dripped thickly from my face, slightly burning the carpet beneath me with the acidity of the venom.

I was disappointed and depressed for the simple fact that this was the only way to communicate with my _wife._

I was afraid because I didn't know if my lifeline could possibly last. How long would it be until Bella called again? Would she even be able to? What would happen if she was found out?

I was angry, no furious, because I couldn't believe how far our relationship had fallen. From spending every second of every day and night together, to not so much as speaking to each other for over a month. Our love had been shattered to pieces because of someone _else's_ mistakes.

My mind seemed to settle on anger.

It wasn't _Bella's_ fault that this had happened, she had done nothing wrong. Nothing at all, and yet she was the one paying the price. Her, Renesmee, and I were the one's suffering to set right a wrong that wasn't ours to correct. Who's fault was it then?

I started a mental checklist.

The Volturi's?

My mind debated that for a long time, before finally settling on an answer.

_No. _

Though it was by their doing that Bella was so far away from me and I could not find anything else in my heart or mind for them other than hatred, I couldn't find it in myself to fully _blame_ them. They had only been doing their job by coming here. Someone had broken the rules and it was their duty to set it right and administer justice.

Was it my families fault?

Jasper?

Emmett?

Alice?

Esme?

Carlisle?

No it wasn't any of them.

I suddenly knew.

Not any of them, but rather another member of my own _family_. A self centered, unthinking, foolish, vain little girl.

Rosalie.

Rage coursed through my body, so strong and violent that I couldn't get it under control. Before I could even fully comprehend what I was doing I was flying out of my room and down the stairs so fast that my surroundings were a vague blur.

My family was seated in the living room, awaiting me. My eyes only landed on the other five members of my family, that _hadn't_ betrayed me, for less than a second before settling on the _traitor_.

I had flown down the stairs so fast that they hadn't even turned to look in my direction yet.

I spied Rosalie sitting on one of the white couches. Even thinking her name sent a new pulse of rage coursing through me.

I caught her by the shoulders and threw her across the room as hard as I could.

Shocked, she regained her bearings and shakily got to her feet. She crouched low into a defensive stance and bared her teeth at me, unexpectedly surprised but ready to fight.

The rest of my family were now aware of my presence and had started to either get up to try and stop me or just started to chant my name, completely surprised by my sudden hostility.

Before any of them could move to hold me back I had leapt across the room again.

Rosalie was a good fighter, but no where near as good as me. She could barely defend herself and most of the moves she made were evasive and easy to read and retaliate against.

I made a grab for her throat, which she quickly dodged.

We circled each other for a moment, my family was still trying to catch one of us, but it was proving fruitless.

Finally Rosalie decided to make a move, leaping across the floor, palms stiff like claws, and trying to catch my neck.

I ducked quickly and punched her in the gut; she brought her hands down to her abdomen to cover the spot that I had just hit. I hadn't hit her that hard, but the punch wasn't meant to do any damage, it was meant to distract.

While her hands were busy I made a grab for her shoulders and threw her against the wall.

She gasped in surprise, then looked into my eyes which were just inches away from her face.

Through her minds eye I saw myself.

Eyes clouded and seemingly blind by rage, my face looked a few shades paler than usual, and there were tear stains still visible on my cheeks. My mouth was open and my teeth were clenched, a constant growl emanating from my chest.

I shook off the image and came back to the present, she was looking at me with shock, completely confused as to why I was so angry.

I slammed her shoulders into the wall again.

"Its all your fault!" I screamed as loud as I could at her.

She was breathing heavily, her eyes wide and staring, she was stunned by the pain and ferocity in my expression and voice.

"I'm…sorry." She said breathlessly, her lips barely moving.

I growled again. "No! No you're not sorry! This is all your doing! It's your fault she's gone! Your Fault! She didn't do it! She didn't do anything!" I yelled, banging her shoulders into the wall with every sentence that I screamed.

Her face scrunched up in sadness and guilt. It was a strange expression to see on her, I had become so accustomed to the non-caring, condescending look that was always plastered on her face.

"Bella's gone! And it's because of you. If you hadn't been so god damn stupid she'd still be here with us, with me, with Renesmee. Instead she's in Italy, surrounded by killers because of your idiocy! If you would have just thought about someone other than yourself for one freaking second then none of this would have happened!" I yelled again, I could feel Emmett and Jasper grasping my shoulders and trying to pull me away from her, but I refused to relinquish my grip. She had to know all that she had done.

" It's your fault that we all have to suffer like this! Bella, Renesmee… even that little boy you thought you had _saved._" I spat. "I wish you had never come here Rosalie, then none of this would have happened, none of it… would have…" I stopped, realizing the hurtful things I was saying and doing.

I let Rosalie go, she leaned against the wall, staring at me.

I crumpled pitifully to the ground in a heap of clustered limbs, and started to cry.

"Bella…Bella…" I cried out through my sobs.

Sometime during my mindless cries for my love, Esme and Alice had come over and tried to embrace me. I let them, but never reciprocated their comfort.

I never looked up to see Rosalie standing above me, but I could tell from her thoughts that she was feeling incredibly guilty. Eventually I started apologizing to everyone through my gasps for air.

"Don't apologize, Edward." Rosalie finally whispered. I looked up at her with a tear stained face.

"You're right, it is my fault." She admitted. "I was the one who took that boy, and Bella was the one to help me to let him go. And when the time came and we were all going to die, I was afraid. I never spoke up when I should have; I let Bella do it without a word of protest. I let Bella sacrifice herself for my mistakes." She looked deep into my eyes, with a fierce rage I was more familiar with. "So don't start apologizing now, after all you've done is speak the truth."

"No, Rose. Edwards wrong. It's all of our faults." Emmett tried to reason.

Rosalie's eyes snapped to him.

"No. Don't you even start talking like that. You have no idea what he's feeling right now. Or what Bella's feeling. You cant even begin to understand Emmett so please don't try. I take full responsibility for this, even though I am late in doing so, and I admit that I was wrong, in both my actions and the decisions made after them." She said.

I felt Alice's hand, which had been rubbing soothing circles on my back, stop for a moment before she said. "It doesn't really change anything now though."

Rosalie closed her eyes. "I know that, Alice." She said angrily. She sighed and then kneeled down to where I was on the floor, still gasping and struggling to get control over myself.

"What would you have me do Edward? What do I have to do to make this right? Whatever it may be, you can ask it. You have every right to." She said, softly laying a hand on my shoulder.

I looked up at her slowly and just shook my head.

"There's nothing…you can do…now." I said between gasps.

She looked to Emmett for a long moment, before finally turning back to me.

"I would go." She said, I looked at her in confusion. "I would exchange my life for Bella's."

I looked at her with disbelief all over my face. She had never been so self sacrificing, ever.

I cast my gaze downwards, I could never ask that of her. And it wouldn't work anyway.

Carlisle spoke my thoughts.

"Even if Edward did ask you to go to Volterra, they would still not let Bella go."

Rosalie looked at him and furrowed her brows in confusion.

"The only reason the deal between Bella and Aro was made was because of Bella's strength. It had nothing to do with her mistakes or yours. Even if you did go there, they would probably just kill you and keep her anyway." He explained.

Rosalie looked down for a long moment and then looked back to me again.

"I would do it anyway." She whispered. Emmett's mouth opened and a small cry of protest escaped his lips.

"Edward if you asked it of me, I would go to Volterra and atone for all the things I have done to you and Bella and everyone else here." She said, in a very formal like tone.

"Rosalie…" I started.

She looked at me expectantly, everyone in the room had their eyes fixed on me, waiting for my answer. They thought that for sure I would agree to this.

"No…" I said. "I would never ask you to kill yourself. I didn't mean it, any of it. I was just…upset." I explained.

"Edward you don't have to-" Rosalie started, but I interrupted her, knowing where her thoughts and words were headed.

"_No." _I said with finality, which was a hard tone pull off because I was still crying slightly. "I can't…lose another family member."

Rosalie grimaced.

"I'm sorry Edward. And I understand." She said, I realized it was the first time I had heard her sincerely apologize to me about something.

I wasn't really sure how to respond to her now. I couldn't exactly say _"Oh, no problem."_ Or _"No biggie." _So I just settled with nodding my head.

"Can you talk about it…now?" Alice asked. Everyone looked at her in confusion. They thought she was still talking about my anger with Rosalie, but she had already moved onto a new subject. She wanted to know about my letter.

"Yeah." I said. She took my arm to help me off the floor but I just shrugged her off saying 'I'm fine.' which was anything but true at this moment.

I got off the floor and moved to the couch. Alice sat across from me impatiently. Everyone followed, unaware but willing.

Esme sat beside me, clutching herself to my side in an effort to console me. Everyone else took their various positions around the room.

Alice decided to break our silence.

"So Edward…who sent the letter?"

"It was from…Bella." I said slowly. Everyone's eyes seemed to pop out of their heads.

"Bella?" One of them questioned, I nodded in response.

"Oh, what did…she say?" Carlisle asked, completely stunned.

"Nothing, really." I said, smiling faintly at the thought of her letter.

"Edward," Alice called.

I looked up at her.

"I could have sworn I heard you talking to someone before…who was it?" She asked suspiciously.

I didn't like the strange look in her eye when she asked me this, it was like she knew the answer but didn't want to hear it.

"…Bella." I eventually spoke.

'W-What? How?" Carlisle asked.

"In the envelope she sent me she gave me a cell phone with her number on it. So I called her and we talked a bit." I explained half-heartedly.

Alice had stayed eerily silent and still through my whole explaination, but now she spoke with barely retained fury.

"You spoke to Bella, just now?"

I nodded cautiously.

Her eyes flashed to mine, and then she was in front of me with a movement that didn't even seem to exist.

"You were speaking to Bella and you didn't even let me talk to her!?" She screamed.

"Alice…" I said. "There wasn't time…she said she would try to call again…tomorrow maybe?" I squeaked out.

"Where is the phone Edward, I want to talk to her." She said firmly.

"No…you cant." I disagreed.

Her eyes widened in anger.

"Why not? Why are you the only one who gets to communicate with her while all the rest of us have to stand in line? Just because she's your wife? Well she's my best friend and I want to talk to her now!" Alice yelled, she had finally snapped. I had known she was trying to bottle up her anger for all of our sakes, but I also knew that eventually it would come out in a very ugly way.

"No Alice, you can't as in its not possible. She said not to call her back because if she gets caught then she could get into a lot of trouble. She made me swear that I would wait until she called me back." I hurriedly explained.

"When she calls back you better make sure that I get the chance to talk to her." She threatened, I nodded and she just stormed off with Jasper following quickly behind.

"Daddy?" I heard a small voice call out. I turned to see Renesmee standing at the top of the stairs, still in her pajamas gazing down on me with tired eyes.

I got up from the couch and moved toward her.

"What are you doing out of bed? Come on, its late." I said, picking her up to carry her back to her room.

She didn't resist, and willingly let me take her back to bed. She studied my face curiously the entire time.

When I got her back into her bed, covers over top of her, she finally spoke her curious thoughts.

"Why so sad Daddy?" she questioned.

I looked up at her and smiled halfheartedly.

"I'm not sad." I lied. I could tell she didn't believe me for a moment, but she decided to let it go.

Instead she sat up from her bed and threw her little arms around my neck.

I embraced her in return.

She never said anything more, but instead let go of me and went back under her blanket. She rolled over and almost instantly fell asleep again.

I went back to my room and turned off all the lights.

I laid down on my bed and got ready for the long night ahead of me, counting down the second until my love called me again.

1 day, 0 hours, 0 minutes, 0 seconds.

**Sorry it's a few day late :S**

**~R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~**


	24. Chapter 24

**Sorry guys, I had a bit of a rough time with this chapter. I couldn't really decide what I wanted to do with it…so that's why I decided to maybe skip some time and start setting up the sequels plotline?? That is if you guys want me to write a sequel. Sorry if you don't like it. (P.S. all hail Christmas holidays.)**

**~R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~**

Bella had called again the night after, just like she had promised, and Alice had talked to her…and nearly had a mental breakdown.

She called almost every night now; she had become way better at sneaking the phone calls in. Every once in a while she would call early enough that Renesmee could talk to her. I knew she was always trying to catch her before I put her to bed, because she always asked, so I purposefully tried to keep Renesmee awake for a little while longer.

After the first time Bella had spoken to her she'd nearly started crying on the phone. She told me she felt guilty.

"_Why would you ever feel guilty about this Bella? None of this is your fault alright?" I said firmly ._

"_I shouldn't be doing this…" She mumbled. _

"_What do you mean?" I asked cautiously._

"_I shouldn't call anymore." She whispered._

_Those four words, spoken barely above an audible level, were enough to split my heart in two. _

_My eyes bulged, and my breath left me. I could only force one word out of my seemingly dry lips._

"_Why?"_

_She sniffled on the other end before answering. _

"_I don't know if I'm hurting you more by doing it." she explained._

"_Hurting me more? What?" I asked, baffled._

"_Well every time I hang up, isn't it like saying goodbye all over again?" She asked._

_I shuddered remembering when she had left our home. _

_I contemplated what she said for a moment. _

_She thought that every time she had to say goodbye over the phone that it was making me even more heartbroken, like I had to replay the day she left me every time she hung up the phone. It was a valid point, but the one question on my mind was…_

_Would I rather take the pain to be able to hear her voice? Or would I rather not talk to her at all to avoid being hurt any more?_

"_I would rather remember that day and hear your voice, than not talk to you at all." I finally decided._

"_Why? I can't do anything over the phone." She questioned incredulously. Silly, just hearing her voice was enough to heal the hole in my heart, it didn't matter to me that it was only temporary._

_I smiled. "You don't have to." _

Her worries had been eased and she had continued to call every night for the next three months. Renesmee had grown a little in that time, but her growth seemed to be slowing very quickly lately. The majority of us had just tossed the thought aside, either more caught up in our own lives or because we were grateful that we might have some more time with her.

It was only when Jacob had come to visit that we had started to become really worried about it. He had mentioned that she didn't look much different from when he last saw her.

That had never happened before.

Even if you left Renesmee for a day she changed noticeably. And Jacob had been gone for almost four months.

After that we had resumed measuring her every day.

I hadn't said much about it to Bella, just vague mentions. She didn't need to be any more concerned about us than she already was. And besides, it wasn't really anything to be worried about. Was it?

After keeping measurements for over three more months we were amazed to see the rate at which her development was decreasing. After she was born she was growing inches everyday. But over the months it had gone from inches to rare millimeters.

Jacob had left again, curious but not really worried enough to stay any longer. It was starting to seem a little bit odd to me. The way he thought about Renesmee now, as apposed to before. Before his every thought was about or related to her, but now… he was different. Now he didn't hang on her every word like he used to. The worship in his eyes for her was seeming to dull, I didn't understand.

I won't lie; a very small part of me was relieved at this fact. I hated the thought of him being with my daughter, and if there was any chance that wouldn't happen, I was all for it.

But it just didn't make sense for that to happen. I had heard many stories about the Quileute Wolves, but none of them had spoken of a wolf leaving its imprint. I had decided to talk to someone about it.

Seth and I had communicated on occasion, I had thought maybe he would know the answers to my questions. He thought of me as an older brother. I had never had a little brother, that I could remember, so at times I liked to think of him as my sibling.

I had called and asked him if a Wolf had ever left their imprint, and after dodging many questions as to why I wanted to know he finally gave me my answer.

"_No, well not that any of us over here have heard of anyway. The love we feel for our imprints is indestructible." _

Indestructible. So was there really no possibility? I wasn't entirely convinced, but I had no proof either. So for the moment I had to drop it.

. . .

(Two months later)

Boredom can be your worst enemy sometimes, especially if you're me.

I usually spend my time taking care of my daughter, but since Jacob was in town he did most of the work.

When I was bored, I was left with time to think. And the more I thought, the more I realized how lonely I was. My life just wasn't the same without Bella beside me. Her phone calls were the only thing that was keeping me remotely sane, and they were a scarcity, I hadn't talked to her in three days. I could feel myself slowly loosing my mind. Half the time I couldn't even remember what I had done in any given day. It was almost like blacking out. I tried to do anything and everything to keep my mind from wandering until she called, so that meant keeping really busy.

But now I couldn't find anything to do, and my mind was starting to wander. I couldn't think of Bella right now, I still had hours left before she would call. Pacing was the only thing that was helping right now. Only Alice was around, and her thoughts were not enough to distract me right now. She was thinking about clothes, but every time she would think of an outfit I would immediately picture it on Bella.

I decided I needed to get out of the house. I would go buy Esme a new lamp or something, I knew I'd broken one of hers a while ago and had forgotten to replace it. I'll do that now.

Practically skipping across the room, I grabbed my leather coat and keys. I hopped down the stairs two at a time and spotted Alice sitting on the couch. She quirked an eyebrow at my eagerness to get out of the house but didn't say anything. I bolted out the door and sprinted to my Volvo. I quickly started it and expertly turned out of the driveway. I decided to go to Seattle. It was far enough away that it would waste some time, but not too far that I would loose interest in what I was doing.

I took extra care while driving, so it used up a lot of my focus. I finally found an old antique store and decided to go inside. I walked extra slowly and looked at all of my surroundings as I walked.

As soon as I entered the store I was assaulted with the smell of wood polish.

_Bella once said she liked that smell…_

I stopped that thought before the pain could grip my heart.

I spent over an hour in the store, examining everything there and thinking about what it would look like in the house before finally deciding on one lamp. I had to admit it was kind of ugly. But I knew Esme would like it so I would keep my mouth shut.

As I was walking out of the store my phone started ringing in my pocket. I pulled it out and looked at the caller ID.

_Alice_

_Figures,_ I thought, rolling my eyes, we had made up about a week after she had broken down. I was never mad at her and we seemed to be okay now but she always felt the need to bother me and call me whenever I was doing something or wanted to be alone.

I pressed the ignore button and put my phone back in my pocket.

Not even a second later I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. I pulled it out and kept walking.

_One new text message from Alice._

I rolled my eyes again and opened it.

_I am shocked at your rudeness. But don't think you can shake me off so easily._

I smirked and didn't reply to it. Another moment passed by and my phone vibrated again, I opened the message.

_I know you're going to chicken out and call back…_

It was strange how even through test message I could imagine the sing-song voice she would have used to taunt me.

I ignored the message again. Once again my phone rang.

_You are too much of a nice guy to ignore me, right??? RIGHT?! *cries* _

_P.S. That is a really ugly lamp._

I rolled my eyes and dialed her number.

"Told you." She trilled on the other end.

"Yeah, yeah." I answered nonchalantly.

"Why did you buy a lamp?" She asked randomly.

"'Cause I wanted to. Is that the only reason you're bothering me right now?" I asked.

"No. I'm really bored, and you left me all alone here." She said in mock hurt.

"My apologies." I said sarcastically.

There was a pause on the other end.

"Jasper's home. Bye Edward." She announced and hung up before I could reply. I sighed and returned my phone to my pocket.

I reached my car and hopped inside. I turned on the engine and glanced at the clock.

4:37

I had about another two hours to wait. I sighed again and pulled out of my parking space and headed back home. On the way home I was trying to think of something to do when I got home.

Movie?

No, I had seen them all. And I didn't like watching movies unless Bella was there.

Maybe I could read a book?

Maybe Renesmee would be home by the time I got there, then I could play with her.

I felt my phone start to vibrate in my jeans pocket just as I was turning off my engine. I only kept the phone that Bella sent me in my jeans so I pulled it out as fast as I could. I was confused as to why she was calling so early. The earliest she had ever called was 8 o'clock. And it was barely six. I flipped the phone open and accepted the call.

"Hello?" I answered.

"Hey." I heard Bella say on the other end.

"Wow, you're early." I said smiling.

"I know." She said. "What are you up to?"

"I'm sitting in my car. And you?"

"Walking in the garden." She answered, there was something in her voice that sounded a little bit off to me. I didn't like it.

"Sounds nice." I said.

"It's not really." She said quietly, but before I could ask what she meant she spoke again. "What are you doing sitting in your car?"

"I just got home." I answered. "Are you alright?"

She paused on the other end.

"Yes." She finally answered, but I didn't believe her.

"You're lying. What wrong?" I asked urgently.

"Nothings wrong, it's just been a busy day." She answered. "Training, hunting, talking."

"Do you want to tell me about it?"

"Not really. I don't want to think about it anymore." She said.

"Alright."

"What did you do today?" she asked.

" Nothing really. Hung around the house for a bit. Got bored, went to an antique store, bought a lamp." I said.

I heard her laugh on the other end, it automatically made me smile.

"What?" I asked curiously.

"Nothing, it just sounds like you had a pretty riveting day, Edward." She laughed, hearing her say my name sent a pang of desire to my heart.

I smirked. "Yeah it was a real riot."

"What do you want for your birthday?" She asked out of the blue. Then I remembered it was June 10th today. Ten days til my human birthday. I frowned at the thought of what Alice must be planning.

"Nothing." I answered, it wasn't really true but the only thing I wanted was impossible to get. They were across the world.

She was quiet on the other end for a moment.

"That lamp is really ugly." She finally said, changing the subject.

"I know." I said, smiling. Then another thought occurred to me. "You saw that?"

"Yeah, I saw you buy it." She answered.

I frowned.

"That's not fair." I finally said, I was trying to sound like I was joking but it didn't work.

"What's not?" She asked concernedly.

I paused before answering.

"You can see me, but I cant see you."

She was quiet for a little while before answering.

"Well these are camera phones. I could send you pictures…" She joked. I couldn't help but chuckle.

"What kind of pictures?" I asked suggestively.

She laughed loudly on the other end.

I glanced up and noticed Jacob and Renesmee coming across the river. Renesmee saw me sitting in the car and waved at me from on top of Jacob's back. I waved back quickly and got out of the car. I headed towards the house, I knew Bella would want to talk to Renesmee.

"Edward?" Bella asked, at the same time I opened the door and stepped in the house.

"Yes?" I answered, Esme, Alice and Jasper were sitting on the couch and they all smiled at me when I walked in. I smiled back and walked over to them, I quickly handed the bag with the lamp in it to Esme. She looked confused as she took it, but then she opened it and smiled.

'Thank you.' She mouthed to me. I nodded in reply.

"Tell her I say hi." Jasper whispered.

"Us too." Alice said, indicating to herself and Esme.

I nodded again, and turned to walk towards the kitchen.

"What is it?" I finally asked when Bella didn't reply.

"Nothing. I'm sorry but I have to go." She said quickly.

"Oh," I said, disappointed. "Everyone here says hi."

"Tell them I say hi back. I love you, Edward. Bye." She said quickly.

"I love you." I said back confused and curious about what she wanted to say. I heard the quiet click as the line disconnected just as Renesmee and Jacob walked in the door. I quickly closed my phone and put it back in my pocket as Jacob eyed me suspiciously.

_Was that Bella? _He questioned mentally. I nodded slightly.

"Hi Daddy!" Renesmee greeted me, smiling from ear to ear. I smiled and greeted her back.

"Was that mommy you were talking to?" She asked me, excited.

I contemplated for a moment. I could lie, say it wasn't and then she wouldn't be upset. Or I could tell the truth and disappoint her.

"Yes, maybe she'll call back again later though." I said reassuringly as her face fell.

"Okay," she said sadly. Then ran into the other room calling for Alice.

Jacob walked towards the fridge to look for some food.

"Geez, don't you guys ever buy any food? Wait, don't answer that." He said.

"So how's Bella?" He continued when I didn't reply, there was an undercurrent of indifference in his voice that I didn't like. It sounded like he didn't actually care how Bella was doing.

"Fine, I suppose." I answered.

He grunted in response, further irritating me with his nonchalance. He straightened up and closed the fridge with the makings of a ham and cheese sandwich cradled in his arms. I decided to leave before I got really angry at him.

I strode into the living room and took a seat on one of the couches. Renesmee was seated on the floor with her back turned away from me and was pawing at something. It smelled like something of Jacob's so I didn't read too much into it.

Esme sat beside me and tried to keep a conversation going with me, which was difficult because I wasn't really interested in talking right now. I tried to ignore the sound of Jacob's chewing but that wasn't really easy seeing as how it was so annoyingly loud. He finally finished his sandwich and came into the room.

Renesmee looked up as he came in, she had been so engrossed in whatever she was doing that her movement almost startled me.

"Who is this?" She asked him innocently and held out the picture of a woman. The girl had dull blue eyes and blonde hair.

Jacobs eyes widened and then he stormed across the room toward her. He snatched the picture from her angrily. My eyes narrowed dangerously and I started to get up, Esme gripped my arm tightly.

"It's none of your business Renesmee. And what are you doing with my wallet? Don't you know you're not supposed to talk other peoples stuff?" He growled at her. She stared back at him with confused and hurt eyes. She held out the brown piece of leather for him to take back. He snatched the wallet out of her hands roughly, her eyes welled up and I'd had enough.

"Don't touch it again!" He said. I sprinted across the room and grabbed him roughly on the shoulder. He looked at me and I started to push him towards the door. He tried to swipe my hand away but I just held onto him tighter, his collar bone started to crack so he stopped resisting me. I opened the door and shoved him out. Without another word I slammed it in his face.

He stalked across the lawn and vanished into the bushes.

"That was unnecessary." Alice commented.

"I know." I replied angrily.

"I meant what you did." She clarified. I scoffed.

"I should have done much worse than kick him out." I said, turning around. Renesmee had her head buried in her knees. I could tell she was crying.

I walked over to her slowly and picked her up when I approached her. She pushed her face into my chest and continued to cry.

As the anger slowly faded out of my mind I realized something. What Seth had said was wrong, and I now had the correct answer.

Jacob didn't love Renesmee anymore.

**Sorry about the wait peeps. There are probably only three or four chapters left after this one, so I'm going to have to start wrapping things up a bit. **

**Like where the Sequel is going? Should I even do it?**

**~R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~**


	25. Chapter 25

***Holds hands up in surrender* I know, I know. I'm a horrible author for making you wait so long but I only have three letters of excuse F. M. L. My life sucks lately and I haven't had much time to update, but I'm doing my best and thanks for sticking with me and being patient. You guys rock. **

**I know a ton of people were confused about the whole Jacob/Renesmee thing and I'm sorry about that, I guess I was a little too vague with it, so I'll try to explain it better in this chapter.**

**AND NOTHING IS WRONG WITH BELLA!!! You have no idea how many messages I got concerning that.**

**Quick question Edwards birthday is on the 20****th**** of June right?? Sorry if its not.**

**~R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~**

Confusion plagued my thoughts for the rest of the day, what had happened with Jacob? Why was Bella being so vague on the phone? I spent all day and night thinking about it and I couldn't even come up with a decent answer. Most of my solutions included Jacob being the devil incarnate and that he was incapable of love because his heart was pure black coal… obviously I needed to get out more often. And with Bella I couldn't even begin to imagine an answer, nor did I want to linger on it too long.

Jacob had, thankfully, gone back to Forks after I had kicked him out, he didn't even come back for his clothes or to say goodbye. I had thought of a real solution though, Renesmee had almost stopped growing completely, and after some research I found out the wolves imprint on someone who is the most likely to carry on the wolf gene. If Renesmee wasn't going to grow into adulthood then maybe Jacob would have to find a different imprint. I didn't voice my opinion to the family, but it was in the back of my mind most days. I would need to find more information but for now I decided to banish all thoughts of him from my mind and throw myself back into my routine. And so I did.

~Ten days later (Edwards Birthday)~

The day I had been dreading had finally arrived. My birthday.

The family was all excited and kept going out of their way to do things for me. Like 'Edward gets to pick what we do today' or 'what does Edward want to hunt?' or 'What movie does Edward want to watch?'. I knew their hearts were in the right place but I would have just preferred it be treated like any other day, any other miserable lonely day.

Alice had made tons of plans, most of which I had politely turned down. She was acting sort of strange though, like she was frustrated with me or something.

All day had been sort of strange, Renesmee had wanted to dress me and herself up, seeing as she thought today was a special occasion. So I had relented and let her pick out her clothes and mine.

All day everyone pestered me, asking what I wanted to do and in what order. And then there was Alice who just gave me a list of activities that she wanted to do and let me pick.

But in all honesty, I didn't want to do anything today. I wanted to wait around for Bella to call.

By midday I was about to go insane. I wasn't sure what to do with myself and I could tell my family was getting angry that I hadn't decided on an activity. I was hiding in my room thinking, their impatient thoughts swirled below me. Around 2 o'clock I decided I couldn't leave them hanging anymore so I put Renesmee down for a nap and with a sigh I heaved myself up and sluggishly walked toward the stairs.

Everyone perked up and looked toward the stairs from their various spots in the living room. Nobody said anything as I walked down the stairs ridiculously slowly.

_Geez he's acting like he's walking toward the noose. _Emmett thought, I couldn't help but laugh a little bit and pick up my pace. I sauntered into the living room and looked at everyone staring back at me. I sighed and ran my hand through my hair.

"Do you guys…want to play a board game…or something?" I said awkwardly. As soon as I said it the room exploded and everyone agreed with me like it was the most exciting thing they had heard in their entire lives. I knew their enthusiasm was only due to the fact that I was making an effort.

"What game, Edward?" Alice asked me with a smile.

"Monopoly…?" I said slowly. I hated Monopoly, but I picked it because it was the most complicated and long game ever. It would waste a lot of time.

Alice nodded and ran to get it, exclaiming to everyone that she wanted to be the little boot. Emmett called the boat, Jasper the wheelbarrow, Carlisle picked the train, Esme the iron (everyone had laughed a little at that,) Rosalie picked the bag of money. Then Alice had come back with the game and told me that I had to be the top hat. _Yeah, because I was the epitome of class lately,_ but I had nodded and smiled along with them.

The game was pretty predictable, Emmett was out first but only because he got caught stealing money from the bank when he thought we weren't looking. Followed by Rosalie, Esme, and me. I could have stayed in if I wanted to, but I just didn't care enough to continue playing. Alice was only in because she knew how it would play out, and Carlisle and Jasper had always been the strategic ones in the family.

In the end it was Alice that had won against Jasper, just as I had predicted. And also as I had predicted it had wasted four hours.

"That was fun! What do you want to do now Edward?" Alice asked with a big smile for me.

"Hmm, I don't know." I said.

"I have an idea." Esme said suspiciously, I zoned out waiting until they decided for me.

"Oh! Your right Esme!" Alice exclaimed, " Lets open Edwards presents!"

My head snapped up.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no." I said shaking my head.

"Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes." Alice said mockingly and nodded her head.

"I appreciate it but you guys don-" My complaint fell on deaf ears as everyone sprung up, cleaned up the game, and ran into the kitchen to set everything up. I sighed.

"Sorry." Jasper said. I nodded at him and got up. Esme came back in the room, smiled at me and went upstairs to get Renesmee. I patted Bella's cell phone in my pocket, it was about six, she might be calling soon.

Esme came down the stairs with Renesmee in her arms appearing to be a little grumpy. Renesmee looked at me and perked up. She smiled and jumped down out of Esme's arms, pranced across the room and leapt into my arms, she felt almost the same as she did yesterday, which was strange.

"What did you do today?" She inquired.

"Played a game." I responded.

She crinkled her eyebrows, disinterested, she didn't have the patience to play board games.

"Did you win?" She asked.

I shook my head. "I lost."

She smiled at me, "That's okay, you'll win next time." She assured me with a decisive nod.

I smiled. "Thanks."

With Renesmee in my arms I walked into the kitchen. I immediately noticed the mountain of presents on the table and my mouth dropped open.

Esme came up behind me and whispered in my ear "Most of them are for Renesmee."

That appeased me a little bit, but not enough that I was happy about it.

I put Renesmee down on a chair, she fell asleep again sometime during the whole celebration. I opened the presents calmly, thanking everyone. Esme was right most of them were for Renesmee, things like toys and clothes and a new quilt for her. The things for me were CD's, pictures for my room, and other things like that. Slowly I made my way through the mound of presents until there was only one left.

It was small and simply wrapped in white paper. Alice furrowed her eye brows.

"That came in the mail yesterday, I don't know who it's from." She explained, she walked toward it and pushed it slowly towards me, it slid across the table, the paper crinkling. I caught it in my hands and looked up at her, she did _know_ who it was from? She didn't respond to my confused look, just gestured towards the box.

Slowly I ripped off the white paper on the box. Even the container for it was a simple brown cardboard box. Nobody spoke as I opened it.

I pulled the top open and cautiously peered inside. There was only a small piece of paper.

I pulled it out and held it so that nobody else could read it.

_Open the door._

I furrowed my brows and looked at the door. I got up and dropped the paper on the table. As I walked out of the room I could hear the family rush forward and peek at it.

I got to the door and put my hand on the handle, but did not open it. My family stayed in the kitchen, giving me space. None of them had any idea what was on the other side of the door. I took one deep breath and threw the door open.

Nothing was there.

I exhaled and furrowed my eyebrows, disappointed.

I was about to just turn around and go back inside when I heard footsteps. They came from across the lawn in the forest. I looked on with baited breath.

Slowly a familiar woman emerged from the forest. She was dressed in a black trench coat that went to her thigh, with plain jeans underneath. Her face and hair was obscured by a wide brimmed black hat. She sauntered across the lawn toward me, never looking up. As she got closer I belatedly realized who she was. I bolted down the steps toward her. My family called my name from the kitchen, confused as to where I was going, they didn't see the woman. I ignored them and came to a stop in front of her. She stared down at my feet. Slowly, tenderly, I lifted my hand and pulled her hat off.

Her mahogany hair cascaded down and framed her perfect face. Slowly she looked up at me and I lost all ability to breath, or speak, or move.

"Sorry, I'm late." She whispered, her words exploded within me.

I broke out of my daze and put my hand against her cheek, she mirrored me. Her touch seemed to sweep beneath my skin and go directly to my heart.

"Bella." I whispered, and crashed my lips to hers with all the love I could muster from every pore in my body. She kissed me back just as fiercely, smiling and whispering my name whenever we broke apart.

"I love you. I love you. I love you." I told her between kisses, my hands roamed all over her, re-memorizing every curve. Somewhere in the back of my mind I wondered if this was real or not, but the front of my mind screamed _who cares?!_

Finally we stopped kissing and my hands moved to cup her face.

"You're home." I said.

She smiled back brilliantly.

I didn't want to ruin the moment but I had to ask. "To stay?"

"For a little while." She murmured back. I nodded, disappointed, but still unbelievably happy she was here.

She leaned up to kiss me again. I was about to throw myself back into the passion but she broke away for a moment to say something.

"Happy Birthday."

**Surprised? Sorry its kind of short.**

**I really don't like monopoly. **

**~R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~**


	26. Chapter 26

**Again, I'm so sorry for the long wait, but I'm afraid I can't promise regular updates anymore. I write whenever I can, but I prefer to write when I'm happy and lately I'm not. So I'm going to still write, but don't be surprised if there is long breaks between updates or if the updates are really random. I'm so sorry you guys, but I want to give you the best I have and this story deserves the best I have, so please try to understand.**

**Thank you all for your loyalty, love and support. **

**~R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~**

Its strange how life altering love is. How it changes, brightens, and re-prioritizes your mind.

Things that you once thought to be so important before seem so strangely insignificant after. Your time with them speeds by in a blissful blur, while your time spent apart drags slowly, painfully. The activities of your day that once were so meaningful seem to bleed together into a swirl of confused boredom.

Love has a way of irrevocably changing you, sometimes not for the better.

Love had changed me irreversibly, but it had also complicated my life. I don't regret falling in love; I could never bring myself to complain about what I had been given, I would trade anything just to continue a life with my love. But sometimes, I just wish things were easier.

I suppose everyone does, at one point in their life, for whatever reason. We make silent wishes, whispering to no one about what it is that we think we need. But sometimes we are so focused on our impossible ideals that we forget to enjoy what little part of our wishes that _are _granted. We overlook the beautiful things because we are so completely concentrated on getting something better, something that sometimes turns out to be unreachable.

I knew I was guilty of this, but now, given my circumstances, I decided that I was not going to do that. I would not overlook the small beautiful things just because I was blinded by an impossible ideal.

That is how I chose to think while I spent my time with Bella. At first I was just so overwhelmed with her presence that I didn't even care why she was here, just that she was, but as my mind cleared a little bit I started to process some things. How did she get here? Did she run away? Was she doing okay? Had her training really paid off? How did she send me that letter that reconnected us in the first place? How long would she stay? Some of these questions were important, and some were just to satisfy my morbid curiosity with everything Bella. But they had to wait for a little while.

Bella had finally been reunited with her forcefully estranged family.

_After standing outside for a few more moments we went inside to see the rest of the family. _

_Bella was anxious and nervous to see Renesmee, and had been asking me multiple questions about her. I had answered at first, but then decided it would probably be better if she just saw Renesmee for herself._

_We walked into the house never breaking eye contact and staying in as close proximity as we could to one another. We opened the door and took a few steps in. The Bella stopped, I came to a halt as well. She turned her head away from me, breaking eye contact, and I felt a pang of disappointment go through me as I lost sight of her beautiful eyes. I looked to where she looked and came face to face with my family._

_They were staring at Bella with varying faces of confusion and excitement. Each of their faces looked the same, an almost cartoon like look of surprise on their faces with a layer of disbelieving happiness; they all looked so shocked it was almost funny._

_Bella looked back at them, just waiting for them to get over their surprise. _

_Alice was the first to speak, not that it really counted for much, all she managed to do was choke out a confused and happy "Bella?"_

_Bella smiled at her and nodded her head._

_Emmett seemed to snap out of his stupor then._

_"Is it really you Bells?" He said looking straight at her with undisguised pleasure, but also a bit of apprehension, like he didn't really believe she was here. I had felt the exact same at first._

_Bella nodded again._

_"It's really me Emmy." She said back, smiling at her nick name. Emmett smiled back and seemed to finally truly believe that she was here with us. He came bolting across the room and practically ripped her from my arms. Bella was relaxed while he swung her around, a gentle laughter coming from her._

_ I felt a smile of my own appear at her happiness. It seemed to crack away at my face, breaking off the mask of false happiness I had grown so accustomed to using and replacing it with a joy that was more authentic than it had been since she left._

_"Thank god Bella, because if I was just having a major freak out moment I would have been sooooo disappointed." Emmett muttered to Bella, causing her to laugh again and lightening the mood. _

_After seeing their little celebration the rest of the family seemed to come around as well. They all rushed forward and tried to hug Bella all at once. It was almost comical to me, seeing them all crash into her and each other, almost crawling over one another to try and reach her. Bella just smiled at them, almost as if she didn't realize she was actually doing it, and hugged each of them in turn, taking her time in greeting them and telling them how much she missed them. _

_I stood by, waiting for my turn again, and watched her smile, willing myself to remember every moment of this. _

_Bella had little more than three days with us. When she had told me it came down on me with the weight of a crushing finality, but I refused to let it swallow me whole. Instead I tried to look at the positive side of this: I wasn't supposed to see Bella, and yet I had three days with her, three days to love her, and hold her and tell her how much she means to me._

_However that sentiment, as wonderful as it was, came with a few questions. I wasn't supposed to see her, and yet here she was. How was it possible? All I wanted to do was fire off all my questions at her, but I decided to let my questions wait, and enjoy the fact that she was really truly here._

_(Later that night.)_

_"And then Uncle Emmett turned into a zombie and ate the rabbit." I finished my completely made up story. Bella was smirking at me from the other side of Renesmee's bed, I smiled back for a quick moment while Renesmee stared at me, mouth agape._

_"All that really happened?" She asked in awe._

_"Of course, why would I tell you it was real if it didn't happen?" I lied and Bella smiled fully now, she stood at walked over to me and pinched my cheeks._

_"Is this a face that would lie to you Renesmee?" She joked as I playfully swatted her hands away, but grabbing one of them to hold first. _

_"But then-" My daughter paused, a crease forming between her eyebrows. "How did Uncle Jasper get out of the haunted castle if his legs were both broken."_

_'Uh, Uncle Emmett dragged him." I lied, not fully remembering all that I had said in the story._

_"How could Uncle Emmett have dragged him if he was carrying both the treasure chest filled with the magic sheep and the special pick axe that had been made by a penguin that learned how to fly and you said he had a backpack on filled with grapes that he stole from the haunted dining room of the haunted castle?" She said suspiciously. _

_"I…" I paused, and looked to Bella who was silently laughing, there was a distinct look on her face that said 'how the hell did you come up with that?' _

_I turned back to Renesmee, "I don't even know." I finally said answering both of them. Bella finally laughed out loud, Renesmee looked angry at me for not elaborating but then she looked to her mother laughing and a smile of her own spread across her face with her own wind chime laughter floating through the room. Before long, we were all laughing at the ridiculous story I had made up on the spot and I made a mental reminder to let Bella do the bedtime stories every night. _

_But Bella wouldn't be here every night…_

_That thought stopped all my laughter in its tracks, Bella looked to me with confusion, her smile slowly sliding off of her face. I smiled at her unconvincingly, and told Renesmee it was time for bed. I had some questions that needed answering and they couldn't wait anymore. _

_Bella and I returned to our room a little while later, both of us fully aware of what our conversation would consist of. We sat comfortably together, as wrapped up in each other as possible. There was a silence for a time, while we gathered our thoughts._

_Finally Bella spoke._

_"You can ask anything and I will try to answer." _

_I smiled at her. "There are so many things." _

_"Just say whatever comes first then." She replied with a smile._

_"How is this possible? Not that I am not unbelievably ecstatic about it, but I just…don't understand." I asked._

_She smiled and took my hand in both of hers, spinning my wedding ring between her thumb and index finger. That one gesture, no matter how simple it was caused me great pleasure._

_"Demetri helped me." She said simply, as if it was an obvious fact._

_"Demetri?" I asked, appalled. _

_"He wanted me to teach him how to live like we do, and in exchange he helped me send you that letter and trained me." She explained, but I still didn't like that fact that she was around someone like him._

_"He helps me, physically at least. He's a friend." She said with a cute little decisive nod._

_"Anyways," she continued, "he told Aro that he wanted to take me on a mission with him so that I could learn the ropes. They don't trust me to go on my own yet, so he went to do the mission and I came here." _

_"Oh." I said, at a loss for words. I had expected something much more complicated and risky than that. I was thinking of her in a mission impossible suit sneaking out of the castle._

_She smiled at me. _

_"Do you think…" I asked, unsure if I should ask. _

_She looked at me, of course she already knew what I was thinking, but I felt the need to finish my sentence._

_"Do you think this could be more than a one time occurrence?" _

_Her eyes widened a bit. _

_"I…don't know." She lied. I could tell by the way she scurried her eyes away from me. But she quickly changed the subject, and I finally had most of the answers to my questions, where the letter came from, what she was doing over there, what her training was like. But even though I had so many new answers, she had created another question for me. Why had she lied?_

_(The next night.)_

_"And tomorrow we can go for a walk and then we can go play in the snow because Aunty Alice said it would snow tomorrow and then…" Renesmee continued to go on and on, telling Bella what she had planned for all of us tomorrow. It was quite funny to me, how she had every minute of the day mapped out for us. Alice had definitely rubbed off on her. _

_But it was also annoying when you were trying to get her to go to bed and all she wanted to do was tell you what you were going to do tomorrow, minute for minute. _

_I could tell she was very tired, but all she wanted to do was talk to Bella, she was so happy to have even a little bit of time with her mother._

_"Okay that all sounds wonderful and we can try to fit all of it in, but right now you need to go to sleep." Bella said, she tried to sound serious, but I could tell she was as amused as I was by all of this._

_"Right, but remember that right after lunch-" She tried to continue, but stopped short to yawn. Bella smiled adoringly._

_"Okay Renesmee, I remember all that you said, and right after lunch we will go to the meadow, but right now you need to go to sleep. The faster you go to sleep the more time we will have tomorrow." Bella told her, finishing her unfinished sentence._

_Renesmee's eyes widened at her logic and then she snapped them shut just as quickly. I stifled a laugh. _

_"Goodnight Mommy, Daddy. I love you." She mumbled. _

_"I love you too." I said, coming forward to kiss her forehead. Bella leaned down and did the same, whispering goodnight._

_I moved to walk out of the room and go back to our bedroom, but Bella stayed put._

_Confused, I turned to look at her and ask her if she was coming, but what I saw made me do a bit of a double-take. _

_Bella was standing next to the small bed staring down at Renesmee's sleeping face with glassy eyes and a tortured expression on her face. _

_Alarmed, I tried to go toward her but she just lifted her hand and brushed a curl off of Renesmee's face before leaving the room, her strides hurried. I followed behind her, shadowing her steps, but waiting until we got into our bedroom to ask what was wrong. _

_We reached our bedroom and I quickly turned around to shut the door. I tried to walk after her but she just kept hurrying away from me. _

_"Bella." I called, but she just kept ignoring me and walking away. I jumped forward to try and catch her arm, but she increased her pace and my fingers closed on nothing but air._

_"Bella!" I said louder, truly concerned and hurt now. Why was she running from me?_

_She still didn't listen and her breathing had increased, she suddenly sprinted towards the window and started frantically clawing at the locks on it. _

_She was about to break them open to run from me, to run from the family. _

_This painful thought ripped through me and before I could even fully think of doing it I was across the room to her restraining her arms and pinning her against the wall with one word escaping my lips. _

_"No!"_

_I looked at her face then, really looked at her, and I saw every emotion that she had been trying to hide so hard these past two days. _

_I saw the regret burning through her eyes, it leaked out onto every part of her face. I saw anger, and jealousy, and pain, and hurt and every horrible emotion I would never want my Bella to feel right there screaming out to me from her flawless face. She was gasping now, but not quite sobbing, she was holding a part of her back from me, restricting how much of her sadness I was allowed to see. _

_My grip on her loosened, but she didn't try to run, she didn't do anything she just stared at me, reluctantly allowing me to see all of her pain. _

_"Make it go away." She whispered. _

_"Please make it go away." She repeated breathily, her back sliding down the wall until she hit the floor. I sank to the ground with her, my hands just resting on her now. _

_She pulled her knees up to her chest and dropped her head onto them, like she couldn't hold it up herself anymore. And then, I heard the most gut wrenching sound. _

_She started sobbing, screaming, wailing, any kind of crying that I had ever seen in my life would never compare to this she stayed completely still on the ground her tiny body coiled in on itself, while her cries were anything but small and confined. _

_Everyone was home, I could hear them stop whatever they were doing when they heard Bella. Carlisle suggested they give us some privacy so Esme came upstairs to take a sleeping Renesmee for a walk. Renesmee didn't wake when she was lifted, just like I knew she wouldn't. _

_I finally forced my eyes to focus again, however hard the image of my Bella in so much pain was to see._

_I pulled her to me in one smooth motion, she practically collided with my chest, but she didn't break for a moment in her sobs. _

_Her whole body shook in my arms she didn't wrap her arms around me but she took her head off her knees and rested it on my shoulder instead and quietly she started to speak to me._

_"I have so much doubt, so much regret," she breathed, pausing to suck in a quick breath. "I know what I've done to you, I know you try to hide it but I see it, everyday." She started to shake her head gently, disappointedly, at herself. " I'm so sorry Edward, for all of it, and I don't want to add," a breath was sucked in again "to it again with this, but I just cant- can-t-" _

_She started to break down again, I lifted her up and took us away from the window and to one of the couches, she struggled against me for a moment before realizing what I was doing. I sat us down, her in my lap with her head against my chest. _

_"Tell me," I whispered, pressing my lips against her forehead. " Tell me about everything that's on your mind, and don't even think that you're hurting me Bella or that you have to apologize to me, none of this is your fault. Don't let it fester Bella, tell me what's hurting, and I'll fix it, I swear I'll fix it."_

_"Okay…" She answered shakily, but trustfully._

_**Sorry I have to end it there guys, review please!!!**_

_**~R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~**_


	27. Chapter 27

**What's **_**this**_**? An **_**UPDATE**_**? NO WAY!**

**Yes way. That's right ladies and gents, I'm starting this up again. I'm so sorry this took so long, but I just really needed a break, this past year has been the worst I've ever had in my life so I needed to cool down, but now I'm feeling loads better so here you are the long delayed and anticipated (hopefully) Chapter 27!**

**R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~**

(EPOV)

"It's so hard and I'm so confused. I walk around every day trying to figure out what the hell I'm doing, I can never figure it out or decide. Nothing makes sense anymore." She cried, I didn't reply yet, just rested my chin on her head and let her get it all out.

"I try to do things that let me get closer to this place, to you and Renesmee and everyone but I don't know if that's the right thing to do. I don't know if I should just go be on my own to avoid hurting everyone again.

"I don't know if I can take it, leaving again. I thought I was strong enough to be able to do it, I thought that just being able to see you would be enough. But it's not... it never will be."

My eyes slid closed and my body locked down as I realized what she was saying.

She wanted to leave, and not come back again.

Again I stayed silent, despite what she had just said.

"I hate the way I feel. I feel like I'm out of control. Like someone else is pulling the strings and I'm just along for the ride. I feel like this is never going to end, like I won't ever make it back for good. When I made this arrangement, I knew it would be hard but it was our only way out, so I took it. But it's so much harder than I thought. The first time...we were...apart was so much easier in comparison to this. At least I had somebody, my father, Jacob, my friends but now there's just nothing...

"Some days it feels like my mind is collapsing on itself. It feels like I'm being crushed, squeezed so hard that I can't breathe and I can't...I won't last forever this way."

She dropped her face into her hands, finally finished. Her tears etched a path through her fingers and down her hands and arms. I sat for a moment taking in all that she had said.

"Bella..." I started but she interrupted me, jumping off my lap and turning to me with rage in her eyes.

"I hate this! Why did this happen _again_? You said...you promised me it wouldn't...you told me it would all be okay, that at the end of everything we would all be there together and we're not! I'm in pieces! Everything is in pieces..." She shook her head and scrunched her eyes closed.

"You lied to me. You said we would be okay...I would be okay...and we're not...I'm not."

"I'm sorry Bella." I whispered an apology, the only thing I could offer her.

She shook her head rapidly, eyes still tightly closed, standing over me.

"It's not your fault...it's mine...it's...I don't know whose fault this is." She said, collapsing into my arms again.

"Bella..."

"I'm sorry." She apologized, she pulled back to look at me in the eye, "I shouldn't have said all those things, it was...inconsiderate of me. Please, I'm sorry."

"No, Bella." I said firmly, taking her face between my hands. "Don't apologize. You can't just keep it inside or eventually you'll break apart. I told you I could take it and I can. I know I said those things, made those promises, and I shouldn't have. But I can't take anything back now. And neither can you. We have to move forward. Whether you are right beside me or half the world away my heart will always be yours, and if you'll let me have it, yours will be mine. There's nothing we can do Bella. Just make the best of what we have. Just appreciate the small pieces of each other that we have. If we sit around and mope about everything that hasn't gone right...we'll miss everything else, the world will pass us by, so don't give up yet, love. Every time you feel like you're going to break apart...just feel here," I took one of her hands and placed it gently over where her heart was. "and know that me, Renesmee, Carlisle, Esme, Alice, Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie are all in there, and we always will be."

Her eyes rose to mine after a while, still watery but with much more hope and determination in them. She smiled softly. She took my hand from on top of hers and placed it on my chest.

"And I will be here, always." She smiled fully now and leaned in to kiss me.

I was glad that some of her sadness had disappeared, and she was now reassured that we would be able to make it through these hard years, and in the end...it would be well worth the effort.

(The Next Day)

"What can we do now?" Renesmee asked her mother excitedly the second we walked back in the door.

"Before we do anything else..." I started, scooping her up in my arms. "You are going to take a nap."

"But Daddy!" She whined though I could see how tired she was and hear how groggy her mind was.

"I promise when you wake up we can do whatever you want, but you are going to take a nap before that." I insisted.

She turned towards Bella, pleading with her eyes. Bella stepped forward.

"Sorry kiddo." She smiled, "Don't worry, I will still be here when you wake up."

Renesmee pouted. "Promise?"

"I swear." Bella responded instantly, but also with an undertone that I couldn't quite identify.

Renesmee finally let the yawn she had been holding in out. "Okay," She finally agreed, her heavy eyes sliding closed.

I quickly carried her to bed before returning downstairs.

When I re-entered the living room I noticed that the whole family was situated on the white couches, I took my place beside Bella and joined in the conversation.

"So..." Carlisle started. "Not to rain on the parade but I want to know how you plan to get this whole thing past Aro and the brothers Bella?"

"Well, right now Demetri is doing all the scouting work. Figuring out where this group that we need to confront is, assessing them. When he is done he will come to get me and we will complete what we were sent to do. That way if Aro asks me to show him what happened, I can."

"You're a clever little thing aren't you?" Emmett asked, I smiled. "Conniving, if I dare say."

Bella just raised her eyebrow at him.

"Do you know when Demetri will be here?" Esme asked.

Bella's gaze dropped to the floor.

"Later today." She finally responded.

Sadness floated across everyone's mind.

"Will you ever be able to come back?" Esme asked.

Bella smiled, "Yes, but I'm not sure of when," she paused and looked to Alice who was sitting cross legged on the floor, "What do you think, Alice?"

Alice immediately smiled brightly at her. "Hmm, let's see. Maybe in a few months, but its vague. Aro will decide for sure when you get back."

That brightened my outlook considerably. I could make it through a few months. However, I tried not to let my hope grow _too _much. It wasn't one hundred percent certain yet after all.

(Later that night)

The sky bled together into a beautiful collage of never ending color and warmth. It cast red tinged sparkles off of our skin as we stood together in the last few minutes of sunlight and the last few minutes we would have for a while.

"Please be careful," I whispered to her for the hundredth time. I felt her smile against my shoulder.

"I will," She assured me again.

"God I'll miss you," I said.

"You know I will too." She responded, her voice sounded oddly at peace.

She had already said goodbye to everyone in the family, she had put Renesmee to bed after she told her she would have to leave for a little while again. Renesmee had cried a little but said goodbye nonetheless. She had asked not to be there when Bella left, I saw her reasoning in her mind and I'm sure Bella did as well. She knew she would start crying and begging for her to stay if she was there, and she knew that no matter how much she pleaded her mother couldn't stay. She hadn't wanted to make this even harder on Bella. So she told Bella she loved her and would miss her and then dutifully went to bed.

Demetri would be here in a few minutes, we were standing on the porch just enjoying our last few minutes together.

This goodbye was different. It wasn't as hard as the first time, maybe because it felt like I was saying "I'll see you soon," instead of saying "Goodbye."

"I love you," Bella whispered, bringing me back to the present. She placed a hand over my heart, "Always."

I smiled and put my hand over hers, "Always." I agreed, dipping my head to meet her lips.

Into our kiss we communicated every unspoken worry, thought and feeling. It was broken though, by the sound of footsteps echoing through the forest.

I hurriedly kept our kiss going, eager to get one last moment with my wife. We broke apart when Demetri emerged through the trees.

"I love you," I told her, looking deep into her eyes. "Be safe."

She nodded slowly, kissing me one last time before turning away and heading across the lawn.

I met Demetri's steady gaze and nodded my head once at him. He returned the gesture.

I watched Bella as she stalked past Demetri and vanished into the trees, not turning back once.

Demetri, too, turned and disappeared into the trees.

As her footsteps faded I heard one whispered thought float into my mind.

_See you soon._

**So what did you guys think? Or are you incredibly mad at me right now. I get it, its cool.**

**Please review because a very nice review from someone is what got me to write more chapters in my stories. True story.**

**I will attempt not to take so damn long next time.**

**~R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~**


End file.
